HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE BOTH THE KNOWNS AND UNKNOWNS OF CLIMATE CHANGE?

The overwhelming consensus amongst climatologists is that anthropogenic climate change is underway, but leading climate scientists also anticipate that over the next 20 years research will only modestly reduce the uncertainty about where, when and by how much climate will change. Uncertainty about these aspects of climate change and their impacts presents not only scientific challenges but social, political and economic quandaries as well. The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) in partnership with the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University, the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, and the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, CA proposes to create a major national touring science exhibition that focuses both on informing the public on what is known about climate change and on how to plan for the future in light of the uncertainties identified above.

The scientific and educational communities understand that climate change will test the resilience of societies especially because of the uncertainties regarding where, when and by how much climate will change. Yet the civic space for such conversations is circumscribed. Various interest groups are actively engaged in sowing doubt and confusion in the public’s mind about the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Consequently, some in the scientific community find the mention of uncertainty in association with climate change as an anathema because of concerns about potentially eroding public understanding and acceptance of the reality of anthropogenic climate change.

SMM and its partners are interested in the perspectives of the scientific community with respect to the proposed exhibition. This session will engage participants in a dialog around a number of questions: How should we discuss the uncertainties of climate change while still communicating the scientific consensus on climate change? How do we gain the confidence of the scientific community to get the balance right between the reality of climate change and the uncertainty of how it will manifest itself? How might this project help reopen the presently stifled U.S. civic conversation about climate change? SMM and its partners seek your insights into these and other critical climate change education questions.