Modes of Communication and Engagement in Climate Science: How and Why. (Invited Presentation)

As scientists around the world find their work increasingly threatened by denialisms, skepticism, and, more directly, dangerous policies that reversed decades of environmental progress, scientists are being called upon to champion science, the scientific enterprise, and evidence-based thinking. Ideas well-known to all of us now – through global initiatives like the March for Science – were introduced to me back in 2004, when Dr. Inez Fung took several minutes of her Climate Dynamics class to lecture on a related topic. Dr. Fung stressed that it was imperative for scientists to engage with the public in hopes for the large-scale social and environmental change that the country needed. She was the first person I heard say that scientists have a responsibility to communicate science to lay-audiences outside of academia, an idea that has been fundamental to my career. Science communication goes far beyond academic papers. Still true today, the benefits of science communication are vast and include an increase in public science literacy and better-informed science policy. Exceptional science communication promotes an effective means of disseminating scientific content through lectures, publications, grants, outreach and education activities, diversity initiatives, broader impact programs, and interactions with the mass media. During a time when information and misinformation can be spread with the click of a button, it is more necessary than ever for scientists to join the conversation. This presentation will introduce methods and strategies for engagement, communication, and diversity in the atmospheric sciences.