104 | Michael Mann on Taking Action to Address the Climate Crisis
For anyone looking to understand Earth\u2019s climate history and the unfolding climate crisis, Michael Mann has got you covered.\n\nMann is the Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media. He has authored numerous books, including The New Climate War and The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars. He was selected by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002 and was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2020.\n\n\u201cClimate doomism\u201d \u2013 the idea that it\u2019s too late to act on the climate crisis \u2013 is a common refrain that promotes inaction. But in his new book, Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis, Mann argues that we can avoid catastrophe if we take meaningful action to address the crisis.\n\nOn this episode, Mike Burns, Mathematica senior director of communications and public affairs, speaks with Mann about his new book and preserving \u201cour fragile moment.\u201d Topics addressed include:\n\u2022 Lessons that can\u2013and cannot\u2013be drawn from Earth\u2019s climate history\n\u2022 Why seemingly insignificant temperature changes aren\u2019t so insignificant\n\u2022 The concepts of urgency and agency, and obstacles to climate action\n\u2022 \u201cShifting baseline syndrome\u201d \u2013 the gradual change in expected norms for environmental conditions\n\u2022 Weighing the paleoclimate record with other sources of information about the climate system\n\u2022 Effective communication and messaging strategies around climate science and climate change\n\nA full transcript of this episode is available here: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/climate-scientist-michael-mann-on-preserving-our-fragile-moment\n\nLearn more about Mann\u2019s new book, Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/michael-e-mann/our-fragile-moment/9781541702899/?lens=publicaffairs\n\nRead Mann\u2019s full bio: https://michaelmann.net/content/about