The politics of zoom: Problems with downscaling climate visualizations
Following the mandate in the Paris Agreement for signatories to provide “climate services” to their constituents, “downscaled” climate visualizations are proliferating. But the process of downscaling climate visualizations does not neutralize the political problems with their synoptic global sources...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.70 |
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doaj-ef0ea1b5c4fc44c48b484d6b26a733542020-11-24T20:57:46ZengWileyGeo: Geography and Environment2054-40492019-01-0161n/an/a10.1002/geo2.70The politics of zoom: Problems with downscaling climate visualizationsBirgit Schneider0Lynda Walsh1Universität Potsdam Potsdam GermanyUniversity of Nevada Reno NV USAFollowing the mandate in the Paris Agreement for signatories to provide “climate services” to their constituents, “downscaled” climate visualizations are proliferating. But the process of downscaling climate visualizations does not neutralize the political problems with their synoptic global sources—namely, their failure to empower communities to take action and their replication of neoliberal paradigms of globalization. In this study we examine these problems as they apply to interactive climate‐visualization platforms, which allow their users to localize global climate information to support local political action. By scrutinizing the political implications of the “zoom” tool from the perspective of media studies and rhetoric, we add to perspectives of cultural cartography on the issue of scaling from our fields. Namely, we break down the cinematic trope of “zooming” to reveal how it imports the political problems of synopticism to the level of individual communities. As a potential antidote to the politics of zoom, we recommend a downscaling strategy of connectivity, which associates rather than reduces situated views of climate to global ones.https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.70climate changeclimate servicesclimate visualizationconnectivitydownscalingspherical |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Birgit Schneider Lynda Walsh |
spellingShingle |
Birgit Schneider Lynda Walsh The politics of zoom: Problems with downscaling climate visualizations Geo: Geography and Environment climate change climate services climate visualization connectivity downscaling spherical |
author_facet |
Birgit Schneider Lynda Walsh |
author_sort |
Birgit Schneider |
title |
The politics of zoom: Problems with downscaling climate visualizations |
title_short |
The politics of zoom: Problems with downscaling climate visualizations |
title_full |
The politics of zoom: Problems with downscaling climate visualizations |
title_fullStr |
The politics of zoom: Problems with downscaling climate visualizations |
title_full_unstemmed |
The politics of zoom: Problems with downscaling climate visualizations |
title_sort |
politics of zoom: problems with downscaling climate visualizations |
publisher |
Wiley |
series |
Geo: Geography and Environment |
issn |
2054-4049 |
publishDate |
2019-01-01 |
description |
Following the mandate in the Paris Agreement for signatories to provide “climate services” to their constituents, “downscaled” climate visualizations are proliferating. But the process of downscaling climate visualizations does not neutralize the political problems with their synoptic global sources—namely, their failure to empower communities to take action and their replication of neoliberal paradigms of globalization. In this study we examine these problems as they apply to interactive climate‐visualization platforms, which allow their users to localize global climate information to support local political action. By scrutinizing the political implications of the “zoom” tool from the perspective of media studies and rhetoric, we add to perspectives of cultural cartography on the issue of scaling from our fields. Namely, we break down the cinematic trope of “zooming” to reveal how it imports the political problems of synopticism to the level of individual communities. As a potential antidote to the politics of zoom, we recommend a downscaling strategy of connectivity, which associates rather than reduces situated views of climate to global ones. |
topic |
climate change climate services climate visualization connectivity downscaling spherical |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.70 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT birgitschneider thepoliticsofzoomproblemswithdownscalingclimatevisualizations AT lyndawalsh thepoliticsofzoomproblemswithdownscalingclimatevisualizations AT birgitschneider politicsofzoomproblemswithdownscalingclimatevisualizations AT lyndawalsh politicsofzoomproblemswithdownscalingclimatevisualizations |
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