HB has filled you in about the status of negotiations thus far. One other interesting session today was given by Stephen H. Schneider, a biologist/climate scientist from Stanford. He was discussing the Climategate topic. He talked a lot about the typical scientific process including peer review, publishing in scientific journals, etc. Schneider pointed out that in the case of climate science research, scientists have been thrust into a new role where they are asked to give off-the-cuff answers to reporters instead of sitting and carefuly writing papers with the lab team. Their work has been put under a new level of scrutiny and the responses to reporters spun in many different ways. You might be interested in a recent article by him:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-h-schneider/hammering-out-a-deal-for_b_386117.html
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Having just arrived in Copenhagen today, I was interested to hear how this story was being addressed here - it was all over the news in the U.S. over the past week.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting perspective and highlights what I think is one of the big challenges that the scientific community faces, one that I have experienced first hand in my few hours at the Bella Center.
I am most interested in the human component of climate change - both the impact CC has on human health and well being, as well as how human behavior is driving CC. I have purposefully sought out sessions that claim to focus on the "human dimension" or "adaptation" or "implementing the findings". Unfortunately, each talk I attend seems to fall short of actually translating the science into action. I think the gap has to do with the communicaiton barrier between science and society.
Science seems well on its way to establishing the facts, but unless we establish a good medium for explaining, translating, communicating and then adopting these facts and recommendations, the information will not make it far beyond the Bella Center.
Hopefully the participating NGOs and civil observers can figure out ways to keep this information moving forward post-Copenhagen!