CR 19:69-90 (2001)  -  doi:10.3354/cr019069

ABSTRACT: The issue of climate change from the perspectives of climate change scientists and climate policy makers is discussed using results from 2 survey questionnaires. Emphasis is given to the German context. Included is the self assessment of the state of the art of the climate sciences and the importance assigned to different sources of information by policy makers. Conclusions indicate that policy makers rely on a number of sources other than the direct results of science, and have assigned a greater sense of urgency to the issue of climate change than have scientists; therefore it might be that some aspects of climate science are being driven by the normative judgements of a political perspective.

KEY WORDS: Climate change · Climate change policy · Scientific consensus · Science-to-policy relationships · Normative driven science