Professor Will Steffen is just on his way back from Copenhagen and has much to share with science communicators at the Hot Air symposium to be held on Tuesday Feb 9 next year in Canberra. His presentation will be the keynote talk for Hot Air AND the plenary talk for the ASC conference that day. The draft abstract of his presentation is pasted below.
Register NOW for the ASC conference at www.asc.asn.au
The early bird registration discount finish January 15.
Climate change: Communicating science in a political minefield
Will Steffen, Executive Director, ANU Climate Change Institute
“Without science, we are just building castles in the air” – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, COP15, Copenhagen, 16 December 2009
Science has played a crucial role – in fact, the essential role – in the development of anthropogenic climate change as an issue that has now gone beyond science, beyond the normal type of environmental issue, and has become a much broader societal issue. As climate change now reaches into the heart of contemporary society – core values, world perspectives, belief systems – it has become a political minefield. Thus, communicating the science of climate change has become far more complex than communicating the science itself – how the climate system works and how human activities are influencing the system. With respect to climate change, science communication is now operating in a wholly different arena than before.
How do we cope with this new situation? This presentation will explore the question by going back to some fundamental principles that underpin modern science. How is modern science different from other knowledge systems? How does science work and how does it guarantee quality? Why does the science of the climate change deniers fail compared to mainstream climate science? How can we best communicate this to a public that is challenged, confronted and frightened about the real implications of climate change? How can we convey this to mainstream media that have significantly misunderstood and misinterpreted what climate science is all about?
Jenni Metcalfe
Director Econnect Communication
PO Box 734
South Brisbane Q 4101
Australia
phone: + 61 7 3846 7111, +0408 551 866
skype: jenni.metcalfe
_______________________________________________ ASC-list mailing list list@asc.asn.au http://www.asc.asn.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=97&Itemid=115