Scientists Offer Passionate, Innovative Ways to Engage the Public on Climate Change (Video)

If science isn’t enough to convince people that warming is a real “planetary emergency,” the panelists asked, what can researchers try next?


AAAS 2012 Annual Meeting: Science Is Not Enough

The crowd of scientists, journalists, and students had their audience participation clickers in hand, ready to answer two vital questions:

Is climate change a serious problem? More than two-thirds of the audience at the plenary address voted that it was “a very serious” problem. And what is the main cause of climate warming? The favorite answer—chosen by 86% of the audience—was human activity.

But when the Pew Research Center in 2011 asked Americans these same questions, the percentages were dramatically different. Only 38% of those polled said that climate change was a very serious problem, and the same percentage said warming was caused by human activity.

It’s a disconnect that scientists—armed with indisputable data that the Earth is warming—have tried to overcome for more than a decade. In a passionate, humorous, and often raucous 90-minute session at the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting, a panel of renowned science communicators on Saturday night debated ways to break through public apathy and misinformation on climate.

The plenary began with a dramatic video of shifting images of canyon vistas and rainbows giving way to pipelines and calving glaciers, and throughout the night the discussion gave way to a multimedia backdrop of slide shows, viral videos, street interviews, and even a few stage shows.

The interactive event, held before a packed ballroom of more than 1400 participants and webcast live, was billed as a way for scientists to explore new ways of getting their messages out to the public. If science isn’t enough to convince people that warming is a real “planetary emergency,” the panelists asked, what can researchers try next?

“The big thing is to be responsible, to tell the story,” said former CNN journalist Frank Sesno, who moderated the discussion. “We need to convey the information, to help people learn so they can be more active, more informed, and more engaged citizens.”
At its best, said writer and researcher Olivia Judson, this kind of storytelling "can capture the imagination, and make someone gain curiosity" about the natural world.

Scientists have more options than ever for telling that story, the group agreed, but what approaches are most effective? Should they try new metaphors, new visual aids, or new ways of reaching a global audience?

Video and more at link