I have been fascinated by science since I was a young boy. As my long-suffering loved ones can attest, I’ve ruined many otherwise lovely dinners by droning on about agroecology, or sexual selection, or some damned thing. I’m not the only one failing to communicate science effectively. Science is widely perceived as a dull and difficult enterprise, working out esoteric details of irrelevant questions. Scientists …
How to Explain Climate Change to Your Own Mother: An Uncertain Future
Today on How to Explain Climate Change to Your Own Mother, we will be treading into some rather murky territory. Previously, I have covered the physical reality of climate change: greenhouse gases trap in heat from the sun, and human activities spew out more greenhouse gases than can be naturally fixed into non-greenhouse gases. I’ve also shown a bit of …
How to Explain Climate Change to Your Own Mother: The Science and The Scientists
What is climate science? Who are climate scientists? I promised an answer and I’m here to deliver, by dissecting how climate is measured and who gathers this climate data. However, to kick off this post, we will actually start with what climate is not, and that’s weather. Many misconceptions about climate science stem from the confusion between these two topics. …