Clearing the Air: Arizona's Voice for Environmental Science

On April 19 2012, Prof. Jon Krosnick, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Stanford University, delivered the 4th and final talk in the “Clearing the Air” lecture series. He discussed how the public understands environmental science. Krosnick is a social psychologist who does research on attitude formation, change, and effects, on the psychology of political behavior, and on survey research methods. At Stanford, in addition to his professorships, he directs the Political Psychology Research Group and the Summer Institute in Political Psychology.

Susan Hassol is Director of Climate Communication in Boulder, CO www.climatecommunication.org/ Even as the science of climate change has grown stronger and more compelling, public acceptance has grown weaker and more partisan. As the plenary speaker for the UA’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences’ EarthWeek 2012, Hassol discussed the range of causes for this dilemma and focus on how we can improve scientists’ communication of climate change. The talk addressed both what we say and how we say it, dealing with framing, messaging, psychological and cultural issues; the value of narrative; and questions involving language. In addition, Hassol will include up-to-date information on what the American public thinks about climate change and how that should be considered in scientists’ communication efforts. Her presentation was given on Thursday, March 29, 2012.

Mark Lynas is an award-winning writer and visiting research associate at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute who served as an advisor on climate change to the former president of the Maldives. He has authored three books-two on climate change and one focusing on how humans can protect and nurture the biosphere. His lecture, "Living Within Planetary Boundaries: How Should the 'God Species' Respond to Global Environmental Change?" was presented on Mar 2, 2012, as part of the School of Geography and Development colloquium. It is the second in the UA lecture series, "Clearing the Air: Arizona's Voice for Environmental Science." Read his blog at http://www.marklynas.org/. "Clearing the Air" includes talks by four renowned experts on communicating climate and environmental science. The series was designed to highlight the importance of communicating science broadly and clearly. The lecture series is sponsored by the UA's Institute of the Environment, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Water Sustainability Program, Renewable Energy Network, College of Science, UA Biosphere 2, College of Law, and School of Geography and Development.

Andrew Revkin, an award-winning science reporter and author who covered environmental issues for The New York Times for nearly 15 years presented this public talk at the UA on Jan. 26, 2012. During his talk, Revkin presented an optimistic, but realistic, exploration of ways to foster progress on a finite planet-including the unique role of universities as hubs of innovation, learning and, most important, doing. Revkin has spent more than a quarter of a century covering subjects ranging from the assault on the Amazon to the Asian tsunami, from the troubled relationship of science and politics to climate change at the North Pole. As a journalist for The New York Times, he made three trips to the Arctic to report on climate change and was among the first reporters to file stories and photos from the floating sea ice around the Pole. Revkin left the Times staff at the end of 2009 to become a senior fellow at Pace University's Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Sciences. A pioneer in multimedia journalism, he continues to write the Times' Dot Earth blog, which is read by millions of people in more than 200 countries.