ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the culture and methods of the climate modelling community. The chapter also critically considers the knowledge politics of 'from above' constructions of climate change and uncertainty. The scale and complexity of this global science is reflected in the assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which represent the complete attempts. There is a degree to which model outputs must necessarily rely on value judgements, particularly when it comes to anthropogenic inputs into the system. The persistence of the disagreements, and the inability of models to simulate observations of teleconnections and processes, is indicative of the limitations of models. However, analysis of the climate-crop model production chain presented in this chapter suggests that incomplete knowledge within and across climate-crop models is not simply represented by risk, but also incorporates uncertainties, ambiguities and ignorance.