The Social Science Explaining Why More Climate Science Hasn’t Led to Greenhouse Action

Earlier this year, I took part in a fast-paced tour of the science of climate change at the Seattle Science Festival. I posted on the event at the time, but the Pacific Science Center has uploaded better video versions.

Richard Alley of Penn State talked about the hunt for “climate zombies” and explained why climate science is solid. Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research dug into the physical science underpinning knowledge of the human role in global warming.

My job was to describe the empirical social science that, in part, explains why more climate science hasn’t led to more climate-smart energy action, but also hints at paths forward even in an era of intense political polarization.

I started by examining the deeply divergent climate change views of four Nobel laureates in physics and reviewed the valuable work on “cultural cognition” by Dan Kahan and others. Read on for a few transcribed moments, starting with my admission that, on some points, I am a climate denier: Read more…