IWR Team Reports on the 8th National Conference on Science Policy and the Environment — "Climate Change: Science and Solutions"

ALEXANDRIA, VA – February 27, 2008. Over 1200 people attended the National Council for Science and the Environment's (NCSE) conference “Climate Change:  Science and Solutions” held in Washington, D.C. on January 16-18, 2008.

Dr. Stacy Langsdale, IWR's National Research Council (NRC) Research Associateship Program Fellow, attended the conference. Presenters noted that our nation is at a turning point and that the message is now clear to a majority of the public and policy makers that climate change is real and is a result of anthropogenic activities.

The primary focus is shifting away from doing research to understand the problem (although this is still important) to identifying opportunities for mitigation and adaptation.  Dr. Langsdale noted that it was encouraging to hear policy makers and institutional leaders discuss the changes they already have made and those they plan to make to reduce energy use and to make more sustainable options accessible.

Conference Highlights:  Communication and Candidates

In a workshop on communicating climate change, Susan Joy Hassol (award winning author and writer of movie, Too Hot Not to Handle) provided invaluable tips for scientists communicating to non-scientists and the media.  Among these: It is more effective to keep reiterating what is already known rather than focusing on the new, hot topics.  Avoid using words that have different meaning among scientists than for the general public (Examples include:  positive & negative, feedback, uncertainty, theory).

Dr. Stephen H. Schneider (Stanford & IPCC), as well as Bill Blakemore and Clayton Sandell from ABC News, also presented at the workshop.  They described that journalists are beginning to recognize the difference between reporting multiple perspectives and balanced reporting, i.e., much of the past climate change reporting has given minority perspectives because this is appropriate to opinion stories, but many reporters now see that this “balanced reporting” may not be appropriate for reporting on scientific topics where there is a clear and dominant majority.

All presidential candidates were invited to participate in a discussion forum, but only the democratic candidates showed.  Representatives for Clinton, Obama, and Edwards attended, and Kucinich himself attended.

A number of conference sessions were videotaped and are available on the conference web site .

More About IWR Visiting Scholars

Through the National Research Council (NRC) Research Associateship Program, IWR sponsors postdoctoral and senior research awards to conduct relevant research for one to two years at one of IWR's locations. Fellowships are given for the purpose of conducting research (chosen by the doctoral level scientists and engineers) to apply their special knowledge and research talents to areas that are of interest to them and to the host laboratories and centers.

Dr. Stacy Langsdale was recently awarded a NRC Research Associateship and is joining IWR for a year under that program, working with Hal Cardwell and others on "A Critical Analysis of Modeling Tools and Stakeholder-Based Decision Support Processes for Application in Water Resources Planning and Management."

Learn more about:

• 8th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment
• NRC Research Associateship Visiting Scholar Program