Wednesday, July 21, 2010

We've lost climate scientist Stephen Schneider

(More appended.)
Very sad news - Schneider was one of the heavy hitters, in trying to bring the science to public and government awareness.

I never met him, but was hoping to on Monday night - only to learn that he had died.

"Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get"

"How are we going to make democracy work if people don't know what is going on?"

A compilation of Schneider resources and obituaries.

Edge.org interview with Schneider

We know we have a rough 10 percent chance that [the effect of global warming] is going to be not much; a rough 10 percent chance of 'Oh, My God'; and everything else in between. Therefore, what you're talking about as a scientist is risk: what can happen multiplied times the odds of it happening. That's an expert judgment. The average person is not really competent to make such a judgment.

...risk management. What do we do about [climate change]? How do we deploy scarce resources in society to deal with climate vs. health, vs. housing, vs. global development? And the answer is, that's not a science judgment. That's a value judgment. And that value judgment can only be made well if you understand the what-can-happen, what-are-the-odds part.

...It's like buying insurance. How much of your family income do you want to spend on insurance?
(from Stanford interview)

No comments: