COMMUNICATING SCIENCE TO THE PUBLIC: SOME EXAMPLES OF USING SCIENCE IN PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES

Communicating science to the public may be the most difficult task we as scientists must accomplish. After spending years learning to do research and write scientific and technical articles to publish in journals, we are asked to pick our articles apart and write them so that non-scientists and the general public can understand them and translate them to assist in establishing public policy. Many excellent scientists either cannot or will not commit their research to this type of document. Some criticize it as “dumbing down” the science. Others simply are too academic. I do not mean that in a negative sense, but they take for granted what they think others should be able to understand. It is not an easy task, yet it is critical for our profession and critical for the public good.

Geologic hazards, both natural and man-made, cost citizens billions of dollars each year. Hazards such as landslides, sinkholes, settlement and subsidence, and earthquakes, and much of the damage resulting from them, can usually be avoided or mitigated. Yet they are often ignored. This is one area where we must improve our communication. The conditions that lead to damage from these hazards often seem absurdly obvious to us, but we should never take it for granted that others will see things as we do and understand the hazard issues. Failure to be observant and heed or understand the warning signs create far more opportunities for those in hazard mitigation and recovery than we really would like. I would like to cite a few examples from my experience with earthquake probability, fault interpretation, landslides, landfills, and drought mitigation about ways to communicate science to the public. We often have to be creative and come up with new ways of presenting our information that will grab the attention of the public and those in positions to make decisions, and in words that they will understand.