Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci.

DOI 10.1007/s40647-017-0180-0

ORIGINAL PAPER

Cosmopolitan Temporalities: A Sociological Analysis

on Climate Imageries in Brazil and China

Marcelo Fetz1 Estevo Bosco2

Emerson Palmieri3

Received: 26 January 2017 / Accepted: 17 April 2017

Fudan University 2017

Abstract Time is a central theoretical resource for climate change science, climate
policies, social actions addressing climate change problems, and shaping concepts
of uncertainty and ambiguity. This paper presents a debate on how different epis-
temic climate science communities deal with the concept of time by considering the
social construction of climate imageries. To do so, we undertake two case studies on
how China and Brazils climate communities have shaped situated knowledge based
on different historical social experiences that created different modes of dealing
with climate change: China has created a concept of time based on practical climate
experiences, while Brazil has developed a futuristic sense of how the climate will
behave in the future. Finally, we address the idea of cosmopolitan climate imageries
originated from hybrid forums and constructed by stocks of knowledge which have
been shared transhistorically by different epistemic communities towards a common
climate governance.

Keywords Climate change Time Social imageries China Brazil

& Marcelo Fetz

marcelo.fetz@ufes.br; marcelofetz@gmail.com
Estevao Bosco
estevaobosco@gmail.com
Emerson Palmieri
emersonpalmieri93@gmail.com
1
Federal University of Esprito Santo, Av. Fernando Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras,
Vitoria-ES 29075-910, Brazil
2
University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
3
State University of Campinas/UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil

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1 Introduction

A classic problem for sociologists, time is also a central issue for contemporary
climate scientists. Scientists around the world interested in the study of climate
change have created climate models that include time in their structure (Pahl et al.
2014; Adam 1990, 1995; Caseldine 2012; Liu 2013; Fan 2015; Adam 1998; Hulme
2009). Conditioned by climate imaginaries, the understanding of time in science is
socially conditioned by practical experiences of climate change and time (Gleick
et al. 2010). Consequently, time has major impacts on the rationale of climate
science and is one of the main pillars of debates on global climate governance in the
contemporary world (Wood 2008; Biermann et al. 2012, 2014). This paper presents
an analysis of the concept of time in climate science by examining the Brazilian and
the Chinese climate science communities. By acknowledging time as a socially
constructed fact, we show how the historical experiences of time in these two
different societies shaped different conceptions of climate science.
The characterization of time in climate science is averse to sensitive, short-
sighted, and simplistic perceptions and instead is conditioned by life-time and
memory-time. When mediated by techno-scientific mechanisms (instruments that
grant scientists an expanded perception of time in different temporalities such as
real and abstract, future and past, and timescales), climate science emerges as a
technopolitical mediator for climate perception which transforms it into a type of
social laboratory of time: climate science links science, politics, and history
contributing to the development of Anthropocene imaginaries (Steffen et al. 2011).
To understand the ways in which climate science has been socially constructed, we
must analyse how climate scientists comprehend and use historical time when
proposing images for past, present, and future climate scenarios. Depending on the
existence of previous historical experiences of time within a scientific community
(stocks of knowledge), the concept of time can be more or less futuristic or more or
less realistic/pragmatic.
The objective of this article is to contribute to discussions on the concept of time
in the Chinese and Brazilian climate science communities. By pointing out
hermeneutic differences related to the presence of local stocks of knowledge, we
attempt to show how unique temporal experiences shape the understanding of
climate change. The article is divided into three sections: the first explores the
concept of time in the sociological literature, the second deals with climate history
and focuses on how contemporary Chinese climate science has addressed time and
its different historical expressions, while the last section explores the Brazilian case,
focusing mainly on how the local scientific community developed a futuristic
conception of climate science. These sections are followed by a short conclusion on
cosmopolitan climate imaginary, emphasizing the need to improve communication
and share local historical experiences in order to create a common climate
imagination.

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2 Fact or experience? Time in climate science

Time is a central theoretical resource for climate change science, climate policies,
social actions addressing climate change problems, and also shaping concepts of
uncertainty and ambiguity (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2013; Curry and Webster 2011;
Schneider et al. 2002; Yearley 2009). Every definition of time in climate science is
created by techno-scientific instruments and conditioned by the stakeholders
political decisions. For example, past, present, and future demarcate the differences
between the concepts of variation and change: a short-term disruption is defined as a
variation, while a long-term modification is defined as a change. The concept of
change, as we see it, is typical of the risk society (Beck 1992, 1994; Giddens 1991):
the sense of climate change is associated with a concept of time created by an
instrumentalized style of knowledge meant to control and predict possible future
scenarios based on models of how society was structured in the past and might be
structured in the future.
Jasanoff (2001, 2005, 2015) indicates nature, space, time, people, and governance
as the central dimensions of civic epistemology. In her view, climate change
introduces a system of discontinuities responsible for remodelling social, political,
and scientific imaginaries. This definition is why projection scenarios developed by
climate scientists are located beyond the life-time and memory-time experiences:
they are products of a regime of discontinuities shaped by a set of heterogeneous
artefacts that outline the meanings of time for climate science and society.
Moreover, Jasanoff (2010) argues that climate change redesigns traditional concepts
of social science such as nation-state. In this way, discontinuities introduced by
climate science transform the ways in which the system of global governance acts to
tackle climate change problems (for instance, how territory is traditionally
demarcated politically and economically). According to Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun
(2015), since we are talking about a debate permeated by historically driven socio-
technical imaginaries and social imaginaries, the meaning and substance of time are
likely to be defined differently by local scientific communities around the world.
But what is time, and more importantly, how was time sociologically understood in
past decades?
We identified three different categories of time: objective time, subjective time,
and social time (Araujo 2004; Lacey 1972). Each category presents a definition for
both the nature of time and the malleability of time in history. For instance, climate
change ideas usually have a sense of before and after conditioned by a linear
concept of time which connects past, present, and future as if they were physical
elements of nature. However, this objective definition always seems to be permeated
by empirical facts which are strongly engaged with subjective ideas of time. For
instance, an objective demarcation separating objective time from subjective time is
unlikely because both are associated with multiple symbolical definitions of time,
all shaped by social forces. Lets take a closer look at each to better understand how
time was intellectually constructed in the last centuries and how time was
operationalized by different climate scientists.

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The objectivist approach claims that time is an element of nature. Time is part of
the cosmic regularity of the Universe, linked to the movement of stars, heavenly
bodies and physical objects. Accordingly, time is a measurable and quantifiable
component of nature: whether linear, absolute, or relative, time is an analytical
reference for observing and understanding nature. As a natural phenomenon, time is
the chief reference for measuring the vastness and greatness of the Universe.
Moreover, time indicates how old the Universe is, how long distances could be, and
how the future is related to present and past facts. As a regular natural element, time
is also a universal reference for the study of nature to analyse and project the
behaviour of long- and short-term phenomena as well as their predictable cycles and
repetitions. In natural philosophy, time in its objective form is a uniform dimension
(whether relative or absolute) of the parts and the whole of the Universe (Newton
1990). According to Einstein, time has no independent existence apart from the
order of events by which we measure it. Furthermore, in some philosophical
traditions time only exists outside the spirits; time is the mediator of eternity
(Brague 2006). Consequently, time has a physical substance which can only be
communicated through mathematical language.
The subjectivist approach claims that time is an internal element of conscious-
ness. Consequently, time does not exist outside the human spirit. Subjectivists claim
that the mind regulates the existence of time. Time therefore has no material
substance and cannot be objectively measured or ordered, as the objective approach
claims. Since time is a fundamental component of the human spirit, it cannot be
detached from individual consciousness or from individual experiences. According
to Augustine of Hippo, time is nothing in reality but exists only in the human minds
apprehension of reality. Augustine claimed that time is not infinite because God
created it. Concepts of past, present, and future are related to memory,
expectation, and anticipation. For subjectivists, the experience of time is
conditioned by the perceptual variations of human minds. Consequently, time can
be subjectively experienced as fast or slow, long or short, and has a qualitative
nature, which means time is human experience and consequently associated with
singular sensations. Bergson (1990) distinguished two categories of time: time as we
actually experience it, lived timewhich he calls real duration (dure relle)
and the mechanistic time of science. Therefore, time is eternal transition, a
multiplicity of facts, a succession of events without separating parts connected to
inner life. For Kant (2001), time is the subjective condition of being: if time could
be located outside human minds, nothing would be real.
The sociological conception of time argues that time is social time. In adopting a
collectivist understanding, sociology sees time as a fact constructed historically
through real-life social practices. As Bourdieu (1990) might say, time emerges as a
structured structure that also is a structuring structure; in other words, it is an
essential feature for the existence of social cohesion systems in societies. The social
experience of time and its perception by individuals fluctuate according to social
forces and historical periods. The definition of time consequently results from social
struggles and disputes for the legitimate monopoly on the social construction of
reality. Norbert Elias argued that time varies historically according to different
kinds of society, expresses the need for an organization of work and reflects above

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all each societys privileged values (Tabboni 2001, p. 5). Moreover, social time
always results from a choice; it is therefore qualitative even when, for instance, it
has been formulated in strictly quantitative and mathematical terms (Ibid.). Time is
a central feature of any civilizing process, i.e., a social process towards the unknown,
intended to control it and thereby reducing the complexity and ambiguity of a
chaotic reality (Elias 1989, 1993, 1994). Time is a symbol representing the social
norms and the regularity of valid practices within societies. Time arbitrarily
regulates and controls social actions, giving a sense of objectivity and neutrality for
domination and obedience actions. For Elias, time is the process of disenchantment
which produces and reproduces the regularities of everyday life, subjecting
individuals to specific ways of life and controlling interdependencies between
collective and individual spheres of society (Elias 1994).
These three different ways of defining time (the objective, subjective, and
sociological approaches) affect how climate science understands time and in turn
how long or how short the past, present, and future may be. The consensus on the
existence of an objective definition of time in climate science is just an illusion
conditioned by how the scientific field of climate science is currently organized. The
ways in which scientists share technological devices, scientific measuring instru-
ments, philosophical definitions, and social norms and values greatly defines the
meaning of time. Therefore, does time have the same definition regardless of the
epistemic community in which its definition has been intentionally or unintention-
ally created? Lets look at the Chinese and Brazilian scientific communities to see
how they shaped different concepts of climate time.

3 Climate imageries in China: constructing hybrid temporalities

Chinas climate history is comparable to the social history of Chinese civilization: a

vast, rich set of heterogeneous cultural facts providing many possibilities for
understanding time as a social category (Jiang et al. 2015; Chen 2008). The myriad
archaeological objects and documentary sources available for climate scientists
critically magnify the elasticity of time as well as the ways chosen to address the
issue of climate change/variation in China. Poems, literary narratives, archaeolog-
ical inscriptions on bones, tree rings, migratory flows, changes in agricultural
activities, fishing, and food collecting activities, among others, are the core sources
for accessing and constructing Chinese climate history. Consequently, climatolo-
gists, geographers, geologists, historians, meteorologists, and archaeologists mainly
produce a grand narrative of the climate based on a network of heterogeneous
artefacts. Like any other chronicle, such as material/immaterial objects and humans/
non-human artefacts, they are organized and distributed through arbitrarily socially
constructed timelines. In China, the co-production of climate change by science and
politics has an interesting relationship with the different political dynasties and how
Chinas population has experienced the connection between economy and weather
throughout history.
While historical climate records in China date back to 3000 BCE, climate science
as an academic field in the country is much more contemporary. According to Liu

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(2013), studies on climate change in China began in the early twentieth century with
the Swedish archaeologist Sven Hedin (18651952) and the American meteorol-
ogist Ellsworth Huntington (18761947). The first generation of Chinese climate
scientists was only established in the 1920s. Since that time, Chinese geographers,
geologists, meteorologists, and archaeologists have played a central role in the
development and institutionalization of a local scientific community exclusively
dedicated to understanding the history of climate in China. In the 1950s, China
presented a mature community of scientists addressing climate issues. By sharing
advanced expertise on climate problems, new methods, and a massive collection of
empirical facts on the history of climate, China experienced an exciting expansion
of knowledge on the changes observed in its climate throughout history ahead of
many other countries.
Such diversity in terms of climate change paradigms indicates a long-term
network of techno-scientific negotiation in China that has been responsible for
connecting scientists, lay persons, and politicians (public sphere) to produce
definitions of climate, time, and change (Randalls 2010; Heymann 2010). This
technopolitical co-production of time and change in China, therefore, is a key topic
for those interested in thinking sociologically about how the notions of climate past
have made significant contributions to the social construction of climate future
imagery in China. This co-production, which creates boundaries demarcating time
and change, is not unique to China, even if China appears to present a singular case
with regard to constructing time and climate compared to other nations. In this
sense, the interconnections between science and politics observed in Chinese history
are central analytical factors capable of showing how climate, time, and weather
have shared social meanings linked to knowledge, science, and policy (Brazdil et al.
2005; McCormick 2011; Jones 2008; Fischer 1980). Consequently, we use the term
climate imageries for the heterogeneous network of social negotiation of meanings
that shaped how time, climate, and change were conceptualized and also how long
or short the future and past could be, according to the climate culture. In China, we
categorized the Chinese climatic imaginaries as naturalistic and hermeneutic.
Naturalistic climate imaginaries are explanation systems based on cause-and-
effect relationships between two or more variables. The naturalistic climate
typology states that culture is a variable dependent on natural states. In this sense,
climate changes are determinant factors for how politics and culture are organized.
The concept of time, for instance, is shaped by nature, and culture has no influence
on its definition. Events are defined in such a way that any cultural state (an object
or event) is determined by prior natural events. Therefore, changes observed in the
climate throughout history are acknowledged as starting points for changes
observed in how the economy, politics, and culture were socially organized.
Hermeneutic climate imaginaries, on the other hand, are comprehensive systems
based on historical comparative analyses of multiple cultural forces responsible for
shaping meanings of the relationships between society and environment throughout
history. Hermeneutic imageries do not acknowledge the existence of any causal
relation between the nature-culture or culture-nature spheres. Consequently, the
hermeneutic approach considers heterogeneous links between environmental and
society in order to make sense of climate change, time, and weather. It also

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emphasizes the interdependence between culture and nature, humans and non-
humans, when dealing with the impacts climate change has on society and the
impacts society has on the climate. The definition of time and climate change, for
instance, rises from a long-term process of stabilizing heterogeneous factors
(humans and non-humans, cultural and natural facts) which produces situated
knowledge (space and time) responsible for shaping an unstable sense of time and
climate.
Naturalistic and hermeneutic imageries coproduce climate and society, adopting
different systems of reasoning. In this way, processes of social change are
associated with warming or cooling climate conditions. Sometimes a cause,
sometimes a result, and sometimes linked with interdependent relationships between
the environment and society, the notion of climate, society, and change is usually
produced by political and cultural entanglements associated with an objective
imagery of climate. In China, climate defines political and cultural events and
therefore is an important factor that shapes how each historical moment is
permeated by relations between society and environment. It seems that weather is
socially preformed in everyday life while it simultaneously orchestrates the rhythm
of social life. Climate, in this sense, represents all the changes observed in the
weather; like history, climate change is a master narrative for all the trivial events of
social life throughout time. Terms such as warming and cooling, which are typical
concepts in the field of climate science, are associated with other expressions
symbolizing the beginning or the end of political/cultural eras. They therefore shape
not only climate events, since they also indicate positive or negative historical
moments in terms of changes observed in the economy, culture, and politics. Just as
politics demarcates different dynasties, climate change (especially climatic warming
and cooling trends throughout history) can also be used to separate and classify
different historical moments. Relations between environment and society therefore
have a very important place in the history of China (Zhang et al.
2006, 2007a, b, 2010; Fan 2010; Huang 2009). As a result, this historically
dynamic relationship between the weather, climate, and society sets the tone for
Chinese thought on the climate.
Considering that Chinas political history is delineated by power and demarcated
by the rise and fall of dynasties, it is reasonable to say that co-produced science will
assume the same political imaginary in order to make sense of climate change
issues. Climate science concepts like warming and cooling are likely to be
connected with political terms such as rise, fall, empire, and dynasty (Zhang et al.
2007c). Climate change indicators, in turn, are likely to be linked with socio-
political changes observed in the history of Chinese civilization. In this way,
political and climate vocabularies are selected to make sense of environmental and/
or social changes according to the naturalistic or hermeneutic climate imageries.
The epistemic link between nature and culture in China creates an interesting
system of knowledge responsible for inventing the meaning of climate in relation to
politics. Since they are associated with a political horizon produced by stabilizing a
heterogeneous network of facts, concepts such as hot, cold, warming, cooling,
change, rise, and fall therefore acquire a unique symbolic meaning in China. Social
construction of the meanings of climate concepts such as time, weather, and change

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is accordingly mediated by the use of pairs of opposites and hybrid ideas that turn
climate into a political, moral, or non-human affair. Climate change can
consequently be positive/negative, good/bad, dynamic/stationary, objective/subjec-
tive, or nurture/nature.
Naturalistic imageries tend to associate climatic warming with the political
climax of some historical periods (Liu 2013; Fan 2015). The term hot weather is
placed alongside political, economic, and moral words such as rise, climax,
abundance, growth, development, indicating the existence of an elective affinity
between the idea that rising temperatures have positive impacts on planting and
trade activities, periods of political and economic development, leading to progress
and ourishing civilization. Climatic cooling, by contrast, has a contrasting
meaning, since it is associated with the fall of dynasties and economic crisis.
Cooling is taken as an objective restriction which embodies scenarios of collapse,
recession, and depression with negative effects on society. Reductions in fertile
land, abbreviated agricultural seasons, and increased migratory flows to new and
fertile lands, among other phenomena, are mainly associated with decreased
temperatures and increased cold seasons. The naturalistic imagery therefore tends to
create a positive association between the climatic warming and politics, the
economy, and cultural variables, while it associates climatic cooling with some of
the observable negative facts in Chinas history. Imageries such as these which
consider climate change as a linear cause of political and cultural changes were
leading analytical systems during the pre-modern period, but lost their intellectual
centrality in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Ideas of modernity, globalization/locality of climate change issues, and the
emergence of understanding systems which are not intended to reduce the natural to
the social or the social to the natural have introduced new forms of climatic
perceptions that transformed climate change analysis in China. Linear explanations
have consequently been questioned by a new generation of intellectuals concerned
with highlighting the contradictions of a model that takes a naturalistic idea of
warming/cooling as an objective cause for explaining the rise/fall of dynasties and
social changes during specific historical periods. Hermeneutic imaginaries present a
careful and critical assessment of the meaning connections between climate change
and social change, distrusting the capacity of linear relationships to deliver a
reliable image of relationships between the environment and society; they do not
trust systems of knowledge that directly link climate cooling and/or warming to the
progress of civilization and economic growth. According to hermeneutic imageries,
the linear association presented by naturalistic imageries is inaccurate because there
are historical records showing that during Chinas history climatic warming can also
be associated with periods of political decline and economic crisis, and
consequently hermeneutic imageries reduce the certainty of the association between
warmth and progress.
Table 1 shows a co-produced sequence of climate change events in association
with political changes in China (Liu 2013), highlighting the existence of the
different processes of social negotiation behind climate history which are mainly
responsible for constructing multiple climate imageries. According to those
imageries, climate is demarcated by politically negotiated concepts of time and

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Table 1 Periods of warming and cooling during Chinese climate history. Source Liu 2013, p. 4
Afour periods of warming and Bfive periods of warming and Cfive periods of warming and
four periods of cooling four periods of cooling five periods of cooling

Warming: 30001100BCE Warming: 30001000BCE Warming: 2400110 BCE

Cooling: 1000850BCE
Warming: 700BCE1CE
Cooling: 1600CE
Warming: 6001000CE
Cooling: 10001200CE
Warming: 12001300CE
Cooling: 13001900CE
Cooling: 1000770BCE
Warming: 77030BCE
Cooling: 29BCE600CE
Warming: 600985CE
Cooling: 9851192CE
Warming: 11921277CE
Cooling: 12771880CE
Warming: 1880today
Cooling: 1100750BCE
Warming: 750400BCE
Cooling: 400150BCE
Warming: 150 BCE200CE
Cooling: 200550CE
Warming: 500750CE
Cooling: 750900CE
Warming: 9001300CE
Cooling: 13001900CE

change. Different periods of warming and cooling observed along Chinas climate
timeline set the tone for a strongly elastic concept towards the past, demonstrating
the vast nature of climate knowledge in China. This stock of knowledge is
continuously accessed and transformed into objective scientific information by a
robust climate community. As a result, consensus is rarely reached at the global
level because ideas of climate change are mainly based on local meanings
constructed over time by the negotiation of heterogeneous artefacts (agents and
facts).
Liu (2013) reviews some of the most important Chinese climate science
imaginaries; for instance, he considers studies by Zhu Kezhen, Liu Zhongguo, and
Zhang Peiyuan on Chinese climate history to construct a general view of climate
history in China. This analysis illustrates the elastic definition of time in Chinas
climate science. Historical registers of time can go back as far as 3000 BCE,
creating a diverse scenario to determine the causes and impacts of climate change
on environment and society. Considering an elastic and heterogeneous concept of
time, Chinas climate imageries have been constructed using the following scientific
investigations: (1) analysis of plant pollination processes and archaeological
research (Xia and Shang Dynasties, 24001100 BCE); (2) archaeological studies of
animal remains, including bones and skeletons (Zhou Dynasty, 1100750 BCE); (3)
studies of literary sources (books, poems, fiction) and changes in agricultural
activities (springautumn periods, 750400 BCE); (4) records of changes in wheat
cultivation (early Han Dynasty, 400150 BCE); (5) records of changes in soil
patterns (late Han Dynasty, 150 BCE200 CE); (6) studies of ancient agricultural
literature (Wei, Din, and SouthNorth Dynasties); (7) studies of historical registers
and literary sources (Sui and Tang Dynasties); (8) climate events in general, such as
the freezing of ocean waters and records from agricultural literature (the first half of
the Tang Dynasty and the beginning of the Five Dynasties, 750900 CE); (9) studies
on changes in the cultivation patterns of wheat, sugarcane, rice, and oranges, among
others, and statistical simulation of climate scenarios (end of the Five Dynasties and

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early Yuan Dynasty, CE 9001300); (10) studies on the increase in extreme climate
events and climatic disasters (13001900 CE). In this sense, climate is a component
of Chinese social history and culture is also a crucial part of climate change in China
(Fang 1992; Ge et al. 2005, 2008; Zheng 2014).
Fan (2015) also presents a literature review on Chinese climate history. This
climate historiography highlights the links between critical thinking and climate
history and seems to be based on a hermeneutic climate imaginary. Fan points out
some of the most significant shortcomings of naturalistic climate imagery,
especially climate approaches based on linear cause-and-effect relationships
between environment and society. In this authors opinion, linear and uncritical
links between climate change and the rise and fall of dynasties are core procedures
in Chinese climate history, producing a set of academic problems. These are a type
of academic common sense which produces misunderstandings in terms of how
climate and society relations should be considered by scientists. Variations in the
temperature cannot be considered without an objective investigation into what he
calls classic research subjects such as corruption, demographic pressures,
economic decline, rebellions, and invasions. The rise and fall of political dynasties,
according to Fan, cannot be explained by only considering climates impacts on the
economy, politics, and society in general. A more detailed and substantial procedure
is required to present a reliable argument about the causes of political, economic,
and societal changes which may or may not be related to climate change.
Naturalistic climate imageries, therefore, have not considered central cultural
aspects with regard to understanding massive past processes of social change related
to climate change in China.
Fan (2015) sees linear causal connections between climate and society as prima
facie hypotheses, which means a set of possible ways to initiate inquiries about
concepts such as weather, time, climate, and society. As prima facie
hypotheses, naturalistic climate imageries are not methodologically efficient to
capture the complex social network of heterogeneous facts behind the social
construction of meanings that articulate how climate and politics are framed into
history. Topics such as the migration of nomadic tribes, demographic pressures,
food security, changes in planting and harvesting regimes (increase or decrease in
fertile agricultural lands), violent conflicts (wars, battles, hostilities) tend to be
misunderstood by followers of naturalistic climate imagery. For Fan, linear
determinism generates reductionist ideas on how climate and science are historically
connected. Fans ideas on Chinas climate history consequently emphasize the need
to introduce more reflexive and interdisciplinary ways considering the connections
between climate and politics.
Whether the imagery is naturalistic or hermeneutic, time demarcates the climate
narratives developed by the Chinese scientific community and serves as a central
foundation for the separation and formalization of relations between climate change
and social change situations. Connections between past, present, and future are
mediated by co-produced factors, making Chinese climate temporality a product of
political and cultural arrays. The history of climate in China is not only intertwined
with politics, it is thus a constituent part of the contemporary techno-scientific
climate culture. Both climate imageries are articulated by a hybrid concept of

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temporality containing a climate imaginary in the present responsible for thinking

about the past to project a possible future, as well as a past time climate imaginary
operating as a stock of knowledge to create historical traditions that illuminate
current political actions in the present. This latter conception of time, the traditional
one, as expected is central in Chinese climate history.

4 Climate imageries in Brazil: constructing high-tech futures

Brazilian climate imaginaries have a different temporality compared to the Chinese

ones. Climate history, in its links with the environment and society, is not as
important to Brazilians as it is to Chinese academics. If in the Chinese case the co-
produced climate imaginary produces climate dynasties, Brazilian climate
narratives emphasize the agency of non-human artefacts generating a dystopian
concept of the future. Brazilian climate imageries are designed by highly techno-
scientific methods (towards climate future scenarios) and shaped by cause-and-
effect relationships between two or more variables.
Only recently has Brazil developed government institutions dedicated to tackling
climate problems and established a scientific community exclusively concerned
with the study of Brazilian climate change singularities. The Brazilian Panel on
Climate Change (PBMC) was launched in 2009 with two different aims: (1) to
assess available scientific knowledge on the causes, effects, and possible future
climate change scenarios in Brazil and other nations; (2) to periodically prepare and
publish climate change assessment reports. As we can see, the PBMC attempts to
replicate the same organizational structure and academic procedures adopted by the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Brazil.1 As expected, recent
production of climate change ideas and later institutionalization of climate science
and politics in Brazil show an interesting feature in comparison with other countries
and especially China: although these ideas were produced locally, they began
globally and from the beginning were connected to a globalized sense of climate
change. Their global nature produces a sense of climate change which is shaped by a
sense of future time: Brazilian climate imagery is based on a dystopian future.
Therefore, Brazilian climate imageries became global before they were
globalized, i.e., they resulted from a desire or a need to engage the country with
global climate governance. The understanding of climate change in Brazil does not
make sense if it is disconnected from the scenarios projected for the entire world. It
is even hard to think about a Brazilian case since the local climate narrative
overlaps not only the Latin American context but also the tropical climate in the
Atlantic Ocean and the planets overall dynamics. A climate imaginary of this type
presents some challenges when processing the associations between historical
events and temporal climate change scenarios, generating a different type of co-
produced climate change. On the other hand, it would be a mistake to say that
Brazilian imageries have only been shaped by global references. They are indeed
local climate imaginaries, although they are shy and still mostly unexplored,

1
See Bolin (2007) and Assad and Magalhaes (2013) for more details.

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ambiguous, and uncertain. They are in fact the product of a historical period in
which comprehensive approaches are more reliable than explanatory interpretations
of future climate scenarios. Brazilian climate imaginaries consequently have been
shaped by two different procedures. First is techno-scientic imagery, which deals
with the biological, physical, and chemical dimensions of past climate change. This
climate imagery is based on a concept of time created by high-technology
computational procedures which delivers a complex narrative of a long-term
definition of time. Second is romantic climate imagery, a co-produced narrative of
recent past climate events produced in the first half of the nineteenth century by
travellers and naturalists. This climate imagery is based on an imperialist sense of
domination (north vs. south) which transforms the South American climate into an
arena of international struggle.
Techno-scientific imagery deals with climate records by showing how past
climate events occurred in Brazil: lacustrine records in the Amazon drainage basin,
sediment studies in the Serra dos Carajas mountains, and pollen investigations in the
Colonia Crater in the Atlantic forest of Sao Paulo are examples of the main
procedures adopted in Brazil to construct climate temporality towards a distant
concept of past time. Such imagery makes sense of climate changes detected more
than 60,000 years ago by examining changes in vegetation cover in different
geographical locations, for example. The timescale can span as far back as
120,000 years ago, especially the studies involving pollen, spores, and fossils in the
Colonia Crater. Empirical analysis of forest cover and chemical and biological
changes in soil acidity also indicate the existence of savannahs and changes in the
rainfall regimes of Brazils climate in the past (Siffedine 2014). Romantic climate
imagery, in turn, reconstructs climate through the expedition reports of European
naturalists who visited Brazil in the nineteenth century. These reports present some
interesting information on the recent climate in Brazil, describing some curiosities
about the environment and society of the so-called New World as well as changes in
the temperature, atmosphere pressure, rain, and wind, for example (Fetz 2012).
Even though they are limited in size and were developed only recently, techno-
scientific climate imageries are the chief analytical means of understanding climate
change in Brazil. First, they allow Brazil to engage in climate governance in
globalized arenas; second, they deal with a concept of future climate rather than
concerning themselves with how past climate was organized in Brazil. Some
hypotheses explaining climate change and its causes and impacts have been
suggested by the followers of techno-scientific imageries in Brazil: (1) Earths
insolation changes on an orbital scale (tens of thousands of years) have been
proposed as the main cause for changes in the precipitation regimes of tropical and
subtropical ecosystems; (2) temperature changes on a millennial timescale have
been suggested to explain the Atlantic meridional gradient as well as changes in
rainfall regimes in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ); (3) changes in the
circulation of the western portion of the South Atlantic have been proposed for the
Last Glacial Maximum; (4) sea levels on Brazils coast were up to five metres above
current levels about sixty-five thousand years ago and gradually decreased to current
levels since the industrial period; (5) fire has been suggested as a disturbance factor
for tropical and subtropical ecosystems which is essential for determining the

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dynamics of vegetation in Brazils geological past; (6) a Short Ice Age has been
identified in the subtropical part of South America and its cause has been related to
increased precipitation regimes (Siffedine 2014). Unlike past climate imageries in
China, in Brazil these are mainly conditioned by non-human factors. Moreover, the
co-production of climate in Brazil is mainly framed by present features such as
political decision-making processes related to the governance of the future global
climate and high-tech procedures. Brazilian climate imagery therefore depends on
what Peters et al. (2013) called the modern challenge of climate change.
In 2007, the Brazilian government created the Interministerial Committee on
Climate Change, a federal institution responsible for promoting debate on climate
change mitigation and adaptation policies. In 2009, the Brazilian Forum on Climate
Change was established. As a result of this climate infrastructure, in 2009 the
Brazilian government published its National Policy on Climate Change. Ferreira
et al. (2014) highlighted the establishment of other important institutions for tacking
climate change in Brazil: the National Institute of Science and Technology for
Climate Change, the Climate Observatory, the Sao Paulo Research Foundation
(FAPESP) Research Program on Global Climate Change, and the Brazilian Panel on
Climate Change. The Climate Network consolidates the Brazilian scientific and
technological community on climate change and indicates a general desire to
connect local actions with global climate governance (Ambrizzi 2013). Linked to
international governance on climate change, Brazils Climate Network provides
reliable evidence for diplomatic actions as well as the decision-making process
regarding climate change governance in Brazil (Assad and Magalhaes 2013).
By adopting IPCCs political and scientific architecture, the central purpose of
the Brazilian Climate Network is to provide expert support for the development of
public policies. The existence of environmentally and socially specific features is
the main reason a network exclusively dedicated to the problem of climate change
was constructed in Brazil. In this sense, the network has three main tasks: (1) to
promote debates on the scientific basis of climate change (such as studies of local
causes of climate change, understanding the natural and anthropogenic origins of
climate change, studies on hydrological and biogeochemical cycles as well as the
effects and impacts caused by emissions of aerosols in the atmosphere, and
investigations of future climate scenarios using computational models and statistical
climate simulations); (2) to promote studies on the impacts of climate change in
strategic economic sectors (agriculture and forestry, water resources, biodiversity
and ecosystems, coastal areas, cities, economy, renewable energy, and health) and
to propose mitigation and adaptation actions aiming at reducing the impacts of
climate change in the long run; (3) to produce scientific knowledge and
technological solutions to mitigate the negative effects and impacts of climate
change in Brazil (Rede Clima 2015; Ambrizzi 2013; Assad and Magalhaes 2013).
As complementary goals, the Climate Network also aims to: (1) generate and
disseminate knowledge and technologies to face the challenge of climate change in
Brazil; (2) provide expert support for Brazilian diplomacy in global climate change
negotiations; (3) investigate the impacts of global and regional climate change in
Brazil by considering differences in terms of the vulnerability and social inequalities
observed in Brazil; (4) propose alternative adaptation and mitigation strategies for

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social, economic, and natural dimensions in Brazil; (5) research the impacts of
climate changes on land use and in social, economic, and natural systems as well as
strategies for controlling greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil; (6) formulate studies
to monitor public policies on global climate change in the Brazilian territory; (7)
develop a natural disaster monitoring system in Brazil; (8) investigate greenhouse
gas emissions as well as periodically evaluate and inventory Brazilian emissions
over time (Rede Clima 2015).
Another important piece of the Brazilian techno-scientific climate imagery is the
FAPESP Research Program on Global Climate Change. Launched in 2008, this
program aims to advance knowledge on global climate change by broadening
scientific understanding of the consequences of climate change for the global
climate regime, environment, and society (FAPESP 2011; Nobre 2010a, b;
Castellano and Nunes 2010). The foundation expects the results of the research
projects it selects to assist in scientifically orienting decisions and policy in the field.
FAPESP consequently expects not only to contribute to the development of
scientific studies on global environmental changes and their impacts on the state of
Sao Paulo, but above all to support the political decision-making process by
providing scientific evidence for mitigation and adaptation actions, especially
policies to reduce risks and vulnerability for the population of the state of Sao Paulo.
The program considers research proposals in the following areas: (a) consequences
of global climate change in ecosystem function with an emphasis on biodiversity
and the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles; (b) the balance of radiation in the
atmosphere, aerosols, trace gases, and changes in land use; (c) global climate
change and agriculture/livestock farming; (d) energy and greenhouse gas effects:
emissions and mitigation; (e) climate change and effects on human health;
(f) human dimensions of global climatic changes: impacts, vulnerabilities, and
social and economic responses, including adaptation to climate changes (FAPESP
2011).
Considering the historical features of climate science in Brazil, Brazilian climate
imageries have a dual climate temporality: first, there is a set of studies addressing
the past of Brazilian climate change, while a second set of studies models the future
scenarios for the Brazilian climate. The past climate is only important because it
improves understanding of future climate projections as imagined by Brazilian
scientists and politicians. The elasticity of time is not empirically oriented, but
hypothetically driven towards a possible future. In this sense, investments in new
techniques and technologies allow Brazilians to shape a sense of climate
conditioned by computational models which are responsible for constructing
reliable and futuristic images of climate change (Nobre 2010a, b, 2013). Further-
more, ideas of credibility, reliability, and legitimacy for Brazilian climate imagery
not only depend on historical records, as observed in the Chinese case, but are also
conditioned by experimental laboratory instruments and high-tech devices such
mega computers and statistical analysis of big data. Accordingly, the better the
instruments a research team has, the greater the reliability of the knowledge they
produce and the climate imagery they propose. The more scientific prestige a
government has, the greater its chances of becoming a leading global agent in the
arena of climate governance. The Brazilian government consequently expects to

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expand its global authority by presenting world leaders with a co-produced techno-
scientific climate imagery produced by stabilizing heterogeneous non-human and
highly technological artefacts.
Brazilian climate time thus seems to be an idea demarcated by social time. This
concept of time has been shaped by the same sense of physical climate time used by
IPCC scientists and politicians. Given the likely greenhouse gas emissions scenarios
and negative consequences of increasing atmospheric concentrations, the experience
of the future climate in Brazil takes the realistic idea of a point of no return, when
it will be impossible to return the environment to the pre-industrial era, producing
an image of the future conditioned by an unsustainable reality in which there will be
no reasonable conditions to reproduce currently existing life. Brazil proposes a
dystopian climate imaginary conditioned by high-tech devices and modelled by
non-empirical evidence. A futuristic imagery of this kind forges a climate imagery
conditioned by a concept of the end of life, or at least the end of the practical
experience of life. The time remaining until Earths systems collapse, for
example, is shaped by projections that only take into account real-time definitions of
possible climate futures. In such cases, the local future is intertwined with the global
future, especially in light of spatial interdependence and common multiple
possibilities for Earths future.

5 Cosmopolitan imageries: towards a global future

The elasticity of time in the Chinese and Brazilian cases as debated in this paper
shows how the idea of time as a social fact is essential when the challenge is to think
about local, global, and glocal climate imaginaries. The social experience of past
and future in climate change issues is created by long-term social practices
responsible for producing stocks of knowledge and ways of thinking, acting, and
feeling that differ from society to society. Climate science is not value-free, as
imagined. Influences from the world-of-life directly affect how objective time is
imagined and (re)shaped by a sense of efficiency. Objective time and subjective
time are only possible ways of thinking because they are linked to social time. Time,
therefore, is also not a value-free concept, since it is demarcated by how societies
have experienced and constructed a stock of knowledge regarding climate change
and how changes impacted real-life institutions, actions, political organizations, and
the economy. The sense of objectivity, neutrality, and impartiality behind climate
change can consequently only exist because it is socially constructed. Since
knowledge is situated and socially constructed, the challenge of modern times
seems to be the following: how can social time (and consequently climate change)
be transformed into a common future permitting the rise of a global climate imagery
connecting all the different ways of tackling climate change? Since climate
governance depends on the existence of a global climate infrastructure, overcoming
differences, peculiarities, and interests related to how climate is shaped and socially
experienced is a fundamental step towards a cosmopolitan climate imaginary.
The need for a global common time and a global climate change experience
transforms (at least symbolically) the concentric circles of the present-day life

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situation. Climate change suggests a pluralization of symbolic content in life-world

situations as well as diversification of possible references for understanding the
things in the world. By expanding everyday life in concentric circles, all differences
around the world begin to be hermeneutically relevant. Moreover, particular
understandings of historical consciousness and reality are not only reflexively
apprehended or strictly endogenous and self-referenced products: they share a
common challenge since climate change is conditioned by a regime of disconti-
nuities. Since climate change is global in character, understanding the
metamorphosis of climate time (universal) into social experience (particular)
implies the need for differentiation in terms of how climate time can effectively be
converted into actions situated in space and time. In terms of praxis, it is suggested
that the separation and differentiation between climate time and social time are only
designative, not practical, and therefore both dimensions of reality cannot be
effectively experienced separately.
Global climate change time experiences consequently increase the hermeneutical
possibilities of the life-world by linking distant traditions and different truth beliefs
into a single climate challenge. According to Hans-Georg Gadamer (1999 pp. 449
458), the horizon prospect society constructs about the world is not only a product
of traditional values and social norms resulting from a linear hermeneutic situation
in which societies are a-aprioristically embedded. Living, having dialogue with
others, and engaging with unknown interpretations of things available in the world
certainly means that societys horizons are continuously in front of an expansion
process (ibid, pp. 636685). The world horizons of hermeneutics expand through
open dialogue since particular interpretations are able to merge with each other. A
global phenomenon such as climate change therefore has the potential to engage all
of humanity into a single challenge and promote an open debate towards climate
governance. Being open to different interpretations of the risks, opportunities, and
meanings of climate change (such as the climate imageries observed in China and
Brazil) represent an opportunity to broaden particular climate horizons, a
fundamental step towards a common climate future; indeed, it is a learning
experience. By considering the timescale of climate change as a global
phenomenon, societies simultaneously share a concept of space experienced in
the form of climate (phenomenological situation) as well as another concept of time
experienced in the form of change (hermeneutic situation). As argued herein, and
clearly shown in the cases of China and Brazil, these sharing experiences are
mediated by heterogeneous artefacts, meanings, words, and images of all kinds.
Expanding the representation possibilities of concentric circles, especially those
which define present life situations, almost automatically increases potential
dialogue between local, global, and glocal manifestations of climate change,
producing a situation in which different interpretations of climate, weather, change,
and time can connect with each other. This means that the available stock of
practical experiences can increase, tending to lead societies into a scenario of
climate diversification: intensification of experiences in terms of social time
experiences affects the global meaning of climate time, producing a cosmopolitan
life situation with regard to climate change. This cosmopolitanism is both banal (in
terms of everyday life experiences) and abstract (in terms of possible future climate

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Cosmopolitan temporalities: a sociological analysis on

experiences). In this way, abstract cosmopolitanism refers to a collective, shared

scientifically designed future. According to Beck (2008), this sense of future
impacts current everyday life by taking the form of threats such as risks,
ambiguities, and uncertainties related to practical life situations such as climate
change. This designed common future is not only an abstract threat but also a
present life situation which is collectively shared, particularly understood, and
politically mediated. That is, in the present life situation this sense of abstract future
also illuminates new cosmopolitan possibilities of emancipation (ibid, pp. 268283).
This broad sense of cosmopolitanism, which is simultaneously banal and abstract,
refers to practical social experiences that actually are shared in ordinary real-life
situations (in terms of climate policies, mitigation and adaptation cultures, and
sustainably driven economies). As a cosmopolitan stock of knowledge, these
experiences are interesting references for constructing worldwide hybrid forums for
improving global governance and dialogues on climate change.
Finally, it is suggested that in terms of a globally shared future not based on a
common past situation, the challenge of climate change lies in the individual and
institutional exercise of a dialogic practice responsible for engaging societies on
intertwined systems of understanding based on a concept of climate time translated
as social time practices. The strengthening of dialogic practice would permit
development of an understanding system which can make sense of local, global, and
glocal manifestations of climate change. Climate change experiences as well as the
results of global climate change governance are therefore simultaneously the
product of what societies have in common as well as their differences, which means
that climate change is shaped by a transhistorically constructed style of knowledge.
In order to politically and scientifically explore the strategies available to build a
cosmopolitan climate change imagination, societies must consider not only local
concentric circles in their planning systems but also the complex network of past,
present, and future climate experiences shared by different cultures, societies, and
life experiences. In this way, China and Brazils climate experiences are
complementary hermeneutic ways of understanding climate change. Through a
dialogic practice developed into hybrid forums, the countries can reach a
communicative consensus based not only on efficient strategies designed to tackle
negative impacts of climate change, but also on a cosmopolitan concept of climate
justice.
A common climate change experience created through open dialogue in
cosmopolitan hybrid forums can improve societys abilities to tackle negative
consequences of climate change. Moreover, climate justice driven by global
governance will help societies like Brazil and China to develop mitigation and
adaptation actions that consider the stock of knowledge created by populations with
significant degrees of social diversity and difference. Openness to the understanding
of different climate traditions is a prerequisite for strengthening a fair and inclusive
cosmopolitan climate imaginary. More studies on this issue are highly recom-
mended. This does not mean homogenizing the understanding of climate time
worldwide, but rather shedding light on what societies specifically share transhis-
torically with each other and how this sharing shapes cross-cultural differences that
must be considered to construct common global climate change governance.

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 M. Fetz et al.

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Marcelo Fetz PhD in Sociology at The State University of Campinas (UNICAMP).

Estevo Bosco PhD in Sociology at The State University of Campinas (UNICAMP).

Emerson Palmieri M.S. candidate in Sociology at The State University of Campinas (UNICAMP).

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