The Iron Lady of Climate Research: Drop the Geek Language

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.copenhagenclimatecouncil.com/get-informed/news/the-iron-lady-of-climate-research-drop-the-geek-language.html

The Iron Lady of Climate Research: Drop the Geek Language

By Bjarke Wiegand | March 16, 2009 | In: Science, Policy, Media

Climate researchers must stop speaking in code. There is a need to rethink climate communication so politicians can understand how urgent the need for action really is. So says Ann Henderson-Sellers, one of the climate struggle's veterans, in this interview with Monday Morning's Bjarke Wiegand.*

"I am fed up with academics who are scared of speaking out."

Ann Henderson-Sellers, professor of physical geography at Macquarie University, in Sydney, Australia, thinks global climate research has been infested by too much gobbledygook. According to her, rampant professional "code language" and fear of being misquoted by climate skeptics only serve to drag out the climate debate. In this interview with Monday Morning,* she calls for a transparent and honest debate as to what researchers can do in order to urge politicians to react more quickly to the climate threat.

"The need for action is beyond discussion. Reams of acknowledged scientific reports demonstrate that the climate changes are beyond question. The problem lies in the fact that this message seemingly has not been absorbed by politicians and the ordinary citizen. This is because, among other things, we as researchers have not been good enough at communicating and fear being misquoted."

Ann Henderson-Sellers is among the world's most knowledgeable climate researchers. In 2006 and 2007, she was Director of the U.N.'s http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/wcp/index_en.html">World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), which monitors international research on the climate. For more than 35 years, she has advocated the need to act in face of the greenhouse effect. And it is quite evident that she herself does not belong to the category of scholars afraid of speaking out.

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[wtmusic]

1. Duh, uh...the air is warmer.

Talking down to politicians? We need to elect politicians who are smart enough to understand.

[DCKit]

2. Keep dreaming.

Better to teach the scientists how to communicate effectively. There's little chance the politicians are going to get any smarter.

Granted, most of the (D)s seem to get it (and I could name several who *really* get it), but when half the country is voting for the guy or gal they'd most like to have a beer with, rather than the one who intends to make their lives better, it's a losing proposition.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. The problem is "Scientific Reticence."

The problem is, if scientists tell politicians they're 99% certain that greenhouse gases are going to kill us, some politicians will say, "Oh! so then you're not certain! Well, come back when you've got proof then." in very much the same way as some will say, "Evolution is just a 'theory.'" (Yeah, sure, just like gravitation was just a "theory" to Newton.)

It's not that they're not smart enough to understand; it's that they are smart enough to take advantage of the language of science, to pretend that it means something it doesn't.