Climate scientists’ biggest test: communication

There are more Earth and space scientists gathered here than anywhere else on the planet.

That makes the cavernous Moscone Convention Centre in San Francisco ground zero for collective brain power. They are gathered for the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

The mission of these 24,000 scholars, researchers and scientific geniuses is to find a way to rescue planet Earth. But some here think it may already too late.

Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them Albert Einstein

Research suggests that the massive ice sheet of Greenland is now melting at an accelerated rate. Far greater than anyone predicted. That means coastal sea levels are rising much faster than expected.

Some scientists here are worried that their computer models forecasting the effects of climate change have been too conservative and are not capturing the full dynamics of what is actually happening to these ice sheets in a rapidly warming world.

It is a week of “climate change hard sell” by the scientists here. But the question remains, is anyone outside of this convention buying?

Recent polling in the United States suggests that many still believe global warming is either manageable, or if combatting it means slowing the economy, it is simply not worth the cost.

Not talking their language?

Organisers here now recognise that although geniuses and intellectuals may have the answers to tackling climate change, they do not always know how to communicate their findings to the general public.

This convention may have seminars on “spectral and polarimetric remote sensing” and “atmospheric aerosol impacts on sea surface temperatures”, but for the first time there are also workshops with media consultants on how to communicate science “in plain English” and “to tweet or not to tweet, how to use social media”.

Teaching intellectuals how to do this may be more difficult than understanding climate change.

Report by Chris Shlemon