Climate crisis: Facts and Actions

The science of climate change and what we can do to tackle the problem

How can we predict the next century’s climate if we can hardly predict this weekend’s weather? Is the latest flooding or heatwave due to climate change, or not? Why is it so hard to take action on this problem? Climate change is likely the most complex crisis humanity has ever faced. It is a convoluted scientific problem and involves complicated social, economical and psychological dynamics. In this Hot Topic session, we will try to pin down open scientific questions on climate change and discuss what scientists can do to tackle this problem.

The Hot Topic was coordinated and will be moderated by Michele Catanzaro. He is a freelance journalist with a PhD in Physics who writes for Nature, El Periódico, and other media, and he co-authored "Networks: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford University Press, 2012). His accolades include the King of Spain International Journalism Prize; the European Science Writer of the Year 2016 Award; the BBVA Innovadata award; and the Prismas Award. He teaches and mentors students in science communication at several Spanish universities. He has been Journalist in Residence at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies.

Second part: Actions
In the second part, we will discuss what citizens – and especially scientists – can do to make the necessary changes. This includes a range of lessons from psychology, communication, history, and social science that scholars can use to play an important role in addressing this problem.

Paul Edwards, director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Society at Stanford University, will explore climate knowledge and politics in historical and socio-political perspective. Since the industrial revolution in the 1800s, infrastructural path dependence has locked modern societies into unsustainable energy systems and lifestyles, creating a “super wicked problem” where time is running out. Climate change requires concerted action at every level: individual, social, political, and international. Scientists and modelers can contribute to identifying the most efficient and effective levers for minimizing global warming and adapting to its unavoidable impacts.

Manfred Milinski, founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, will expose key-findings on the psychology of climate change, on the basis of evolutionary biology. Inherited behavioural rules make it difficult to solve the problem as is exemplified by the “tragedy of the commons.” Selfish short-term benefits undermine collective action benefitting future generations. Future benefits will be diluted and heavily discounted.

Jennifer Marlon, reseaerch scientist, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC), will discuss the communication of climate change. Data from the US and the rest of the world show that the perception of climate change is more nuanced than what is usually assumed. This knowledge can be used to drive forms of communication that are more likely to trigger solutions.



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