On Thursday, 255 members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, including 11 Nobel laureates, made public an open letter striking out at the orchestrated effort by a small network of climate deniers that has deliberately sought to confuse the public’s understanding of the dangers of climate change.  Signers include eight scientists from University of California at San Diego.  The statement is direct and elegant.  Click here for the full text.

Recently I had the honor to be included in a group brought together to discuss the communication challenges discussed in the letter.  In attendance that evening were four scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who have spent decades dealing first hand with the study of climate.  It was a wide ranging discussion.  One concept that I took away was that the science we use to make decisions is the best science we have at hand.  Like climate science, medical science is imperfect and essential.  If my surgeon tells me that 95% of medical specialists are 95% confident of the efficacy of a recommended procedure, I will use that information to make my decision.  Even if my choice were to side with the minority viewpoint, I would make a decision.  What I would not do is revert to the no-decision mode of “the jury is still out” and “there is still some debate”. 

Our scientists need and deserve our active support.  The April 12th issue of The New Yorker noted, “No one has ever offered a plausible account of why thousands of scientists, at hundreds of universities in dozens of countries would bother to engineer a climate hoax”.  “The message from scientists at this point couldn’t be clearer: the world’s emissions trajectory is extremely dangerous.  Goofball weathermen, Climategate, conspiracy theories—these are all a distraction from what’s really happening”.  Indeed.

Tags: U.S. National Academy of Sciences, UCSD

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 8th, 2010 at 8:24 am and is filed under Climate change . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.