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b'The Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication Dr. Richard Alley, Professor of Geosciences, Penn State The event is a moving tribute to the late Stanford University climatologist Stephen Schneider, as Richard Alley is honored as the inaugural winner of the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. Alley, the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, is also host of the PBS documentary "Earth: The Operators Manual." Alley and Climate One\\u2019s Greg Dalton talk about the challenges confronting scientists who carry on Schneider\\u2019s legacy of communicating climate science to the public and policymakers. The intent of the PBS series and companion book, Alley says, is to present both the risks and opportunities presented by climate change, and to use different messengers to tell the story. \\u201cWe\\u2019re hoping to communicate more, not only the imperatives of doing something, but the amazing opportunities that are out there,\\u201d he says. The good news is that we have the tools we need to get started. \\u201cThe first place to start is that we know we can get there without game-changers. This is the wonderful thing. If you can get a hundredth of a percent of the sun\\u2019s energy, that\\u2019s all of humanity\\u2019s energy. If you can put a wind farm on the windiest 20% of the plains and deserts of the world, that is far more than humanity\\u2019s energy needs.\\u201d And it helps if that message isn\\u2019t coming solely from him: \\u201c\\u2018Climate change matters to you,\\u2019 I can say that. But why now have an admiral in the U.S. Navy say it, because climate change matters to them.\\u201d He also doesn\\u2019t want to prescribe policy solutions. \\u201cI would like very much to bring forward what we know, why it matters, and what opportunities are attached to that knowledge. And then stop and say, \\u2018It\\u2019s yours,\\u2019\\u201d he says. That handoff invariably involves asking policymakers, and the public, to grapple with the tricky concept of scientific uncertainty. Fortunately, Alley says, Stephen Schneider excelled at explaining uncertainty, using techniques that Alley has made his own. \\u201cYou have to say: \\u2018This is what we know. And this is as good as it can get. And this is as bad as it can get.\\u2019 And make that very clear to people,\\u201d he says. And though his inbox is sometimes the target of skeptics\\u2019 screeds, Alley\\u2019s preferred response is to engage. \\u201cThere may be bad people out there, but I don\\u2019t talk to them,\\u201d he says. \\u201cEven the ones who call me names, when you can actually sit down with them, they care. Usually they\\u2019re arguing about things that are not really what they care about. What they really care about are their grandkids.\\u201d This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on December 6, 2011\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'