Science As A Contact Sport
b'Science As A Contact Sport Ben Santer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Noah Diffenbaugh, Professor, Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford Uninversity Greg Dalton, Climate One - Moderator Confronted with overwhelming evidence of a warming planet, scientists have a duty to leave the laboratory and engage the public, say two leading climatologists. This Climate One program, titled \\u201cScience as a Contact Sport,\\u201d is a tribute to the late Stanford University climate scientist Stephen Schneider, whose last work was a book of the same name. Ben Santer, a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Noah Diffenbaugh, Professor, Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University, comment on Schneider\\u2019s legacy: cutting-edge research complemented by unmatched communications skills. Despite the need, Santer and Diffenbaugh say, Ph.D.s are not likely to receive communications training during their formal studies. Santer says he learned on the job; Diffenbaugh says he was trained only to communicate with other scientists. The omission is particularly worrisome with attacks against climate science, and its practitioners, ascendant. The attacks leave scientists no choice but to defend the integrity of their work and reputations, say Santer and Diffenbaugh. \\u201cWe\\u2019re in a challenging position as climate scientists,\\u201d Diffenbaugh says, \\u201cin that there\\u2019s a very charged political atmosphere out in the real world. In some ways, it\\u2019s the path of least resistance to dump the information on the world, and then do it again for the next paper.\\u201d Santer and Diffenbaugh both describe a moral duty to speak out, as publishing alone hasn\\u2019t persuaded policymakers to act or silenced skeptics. \\u201cWhen I started off as a climate scientist,\\u201d Santer says, \\u201cI believed that if you did the best possible science, it would be good enough. Ultimately, people would do the right thing if the science was credible, if it was compelling, if the physical evidence was consistent, coherent. But it\\u2019s not.\\u201d As a result, he says, \\u201cpart of our job, too, is to demystify, to speak truth to power when people try to demonize climate science and climate scientists. You can\\u2019t just be a bystander.\\u201d This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club on November 3, 2010\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'