Climate Communication and Next-Generation Climate Models

This talk was inspired by work on climate outreach undertaken by a joint committee of the National Academy of Science and the Royal Society on which Inez and I both sat. As scientists we face a number of challenges in this area. On the one hand we must of course communicate the unequivocal fact that human emissions are increasing the risk of extreme climatic and weather events, whilst on the other hand we must acknowledge that there is much that must be done to improve our computational representations of climate. To make these points effectively, I believe we must try harder to communicate the fact that it is possible – indeed necessary I would argue - to separate the science of climate change from the politics of climate change. For example, it is surely in everyone’s interests, no matter what their view about the politics of climate change, that we try to reduce the systematic errors and uncertainties associated with current generation climate models. A new European initiative “Extreme Earth”, which aims to do just this, will be described.