| 英文摘要: | There is a gap between the current role of the climate science community and the needs of society. Closing this gap represents a necessary but insufficient step towards improved public discourse and more constructive policy formulation on climate change. How should climate scientists balance their efforts between investigating the climate system and engaging with policymakers and the public? When engaging, should they merely aim to inform policy, or should they advocate specific actions? In a newly published study1 we argue that these questions are unresolved, and that there is a gap between the role of the climate science community and the needs of society. The implications of climate science merit widespread constructive and thoughtful discussion. Yet the public discourse is commonly fraught with contention, and climate scientists often find themselves on the receiving end of emotionally charged reactions to their work. To help turn this situation around, we encourage the community to reconsider its professional practices, skills and norms, and to adjust its training and development activities accordingly. This is not the first time such a call has been issued. In 1997, Jane Lubchenco — then newly appointed as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science — delivered a speech2 in which she underscored the extent of the human impacts on the ecological systems of the planet and the intimate connections of these systems with human health, the economy, social justice and national security. She saw it as incumbent on researchers to reflect on the nature of their responsibilities to society, and to evaluate the extent to which they were fulfilling them. She invited the science community to “participate vigorously in exploring the relationship between science and society and in considering a New Social Contract for Science as we enter the Century of the Environment”.
© US STATE DEPARTMENT / ALAMY
European space scientists view NASA data visualizations during the 18th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha, Qatar, 2012. With nearly 200 countries working towards a new policy agreement on climate change at the 21st Session in Paris in December 2015, climate scientists have an important role to play in the outcome.
- Rapley, C. G. et al. Time for Change? Climate Science Reconsidered (Report of the UCL Policy Commission on Communicating Climate Science, 2014).
- Lubchenco, J. Science 279, 491–497 (1998).
- Pielke, R. A. Jr The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007).
- Mahoney, M. J. Soc. Stud. Sci. 9, 349–375 (1979).
- Kuhn, T. S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Univ. Chicago Press, 1962).
- Popper, K. R. The Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality (Routeledge, 1994).
- Corner, A. & Groves, C. Nature Clim. Change 4, 743–745 (2014).
- Hulme, M. Why We Disagree About Climate Change (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009).
- http://www.ucl.ac.uk/public-policy/policy_commissions/Communication-climate-science
Download references
Affiliations
-
Chris Rapley is in the Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
-
Kris De Meyer is in the Department of Informatics, Kings College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, UK
|