Following the panel discussion on \u201crecommendations for scientists on how uncertainties related to the 2 degree limit should be discussed in public\/with journalists\u201d I had some thoughts which I would like to jot down in this blog post.<\/p>\n
Firstly, I think it\u2019s important to understand the topic of discussion. It asks for recommendations for how scientists should interact in a public sphere. A public sphere therefore calls for translation of knowledge which is accessible and understandable to the public. When scientists are in a public sphere they need to communicate differently than when they are in the academic sphere.<\/p>\n
To make knowledge accessible to everyone in the public, we need to further delve into the people\u2019s relationship with science and more specifically uncertainties. Some see science as final, an objective source of information that has all the answers. Some see science as incomprehensible, hard to follow. There are probably several other categories you can put people into, depending on how their relationship with science is. But focusing on the kinds I mentioned, I feel both of them are problematic as science is neither final- it undergoes changes and revisions from time to time, nor incomprehensible- it just needs to be communicated well.<\/p>\n
For the public to be comfortable with science and its uncertainties, there needs to be a change in how science and uncertainties are taught or shown in the media. We often forget that one of the basic reasons for the existence of science is to just add knowledge. One studies a mountain or a glacier just because it is there! And when you are studying something, uncertainties are bound to arise in ways that you can probably never know or sometimes with deeper studies uncover. So uncertainties are not all bad.<\/p>\n
But for the public to be comfortable with such a perception of uncertainty and science, it would take a while (changes in education, changes is how people in the immediate surrounding talk about it). A faster way would be to communicate it better. Frame uncertainties better. Use narratives that have a positive effect. This way facts don\u2019t become less facts, even when communicated with uncertainties because the audience is now comfortable with it. Studies show framing climate change in terms of its public health impacts can help localize the issue and make it more personally relevant whereas framing climate solutions in terms of political conflict can emphasize the self-interested motivations of political leaders, thereby undermining efficacy[1]. Studies done across political spectrum to see how people engage with climate change use narratives of reduction of waste, patriotic energy system, smart money etc[2]. Similar narratives can be used to get the point across to the audience.<\/p>\n
Another thought that came to me was maybe there is too much pressure on the scientists to communicate the science too, in addition to doing the science. Well it\u2019s their personal choice. I think there is a space big enough for more \u201cscience communicators\u201d to transfer the specific scientific knowledge to the public. Encouragement of more such jobs would definitely help in the transfer of knowledge and also help the public become aware and comfortable with science and its uncertainties. But till we have a bigger and more inclusive space like that, scientists who are willing to do the job of communication should make knowledge accessible. This would be greatly appreciated as we need faster transfer of knowledge. I believe that transfer of knowledge is definitely one of the ways through which we can achieve climate action and policy changes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following the panel discussion on \u201crecommendations for scientists on how uncertainties related to the 2 degree limit should be discussed in public\/with journalists\u201d I had some thoughts which I would like to jot down in this blog post. Firstly, I think it\u2019s important to understand the topic of discussion. It asks for recommendations for howContinue reading “Communicating Uncertainties”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-students-blogs-2021"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2091,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions\/2091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}