Expertise in conflict – Bert Bolin and Tor Ragnar Gerholm in the debate on energy and environment

Other conference contribution, 2022

Since the political breakthrough of modern environmental problems in the late 1960s, scientists have repeatedly
engaged in the public debate on issues such as energy, economic growth, and climate change. Scientific
findings have been invoked with the aim of getting politicians and society to act. At the same time, the presence
in the public debate has highlighted conflicts over scientific results and societal change. Such conflicts have
been studied in the US context to a great extent but far less is known about similar conflicts in other countries.
Building on research where we have identified such debates in Sweden, this presentation sketches the outline
of a proposed project tracing the conflicts over energy, environment, and climate change through the lens of two
key actors. Tor Ragnar Gerholm and Bert Bolin both born in 1925 and died in 2007, came during their careers
to become central voices in Swedish energy policy and in the debate about environmental threats, but acted in
diametrically different ways. In the presentation I introduce some early findings on two actor’s positions and the
“technologies of legitimacy” they used to bring forth their scientific findings and political perspectives.