Monday, June 25, 2018

Andy Revkin - ASK SCIENCE AMA Series on Reddit JUNE 2018

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5 points·14 hours ago We have Andrew Revkin from the National Geographic Society here to answer your questions on the communication of climate change, ask him anything!
(Photo by Jim Reed)
Can you describe the planning and bureaucracy that has gone into your work, and/or the major complications that prevent you from doing more for your work?
What research/ers do you have an ill bias towards and why?
Everyone’s heard of global warming and climate change, but as someone who hasn’t been well informed, what significant changes and/or developments have been found that aren’t highlighted enough in media, and can you provide names or links to find out more about them?
National Geographic AMA
4 points·11 hours ago
On your first question, my "plan" for my communication efforts - and for how I set priorities in brainstorming with others at Nat Geo Society on where to focus grants - is mainly to do homework looking at root causes of issues. What's driving deforestation. What's behind society's inertia in moving off fossil fuels. Why do we keep building in environmental danger zones (earthquake, flood). Then where would communication innovation make a difference. Here's one example related to construction in earthquake zones: "Amid Katmandu’s Earthquake Wreckage, Hints of a Shift to Safer Construction." There, the solution is not telling a better story. Read to learn more.
For the sake of time, I'll focus on one example of what's missing in global warming coverage -- budgets for basic science related to moving beyond fossil fuels. In 2006, I wrote my first page-one story examining the weird fact that budgets for energy-related research (both in the US and most advanced nations) were falling despite growing concerns about global warming.
Not much has changed. The media tend to focus on bright shiny news around Teslas or Germany's solar push while not fully examining what would need to happen to have global transportation moving off fossil fuels. Every groundbreaking component in a Tesla was derived from basic science undertaken during the Space Race and Cold War. In a world heading toward 9 billion people seeking decent lives, it's hard to see an accelerated path without much more focus on that end. It is not remotely sufficient, but necessary.

2 comments:

DANIELBLOOM said...

We have Andrew Revkin from the National Geographic Society here to answer your questions on the communication of climate change, ask him anything! https://redd.it/8tpl4i (Photo by Jim Reed)

DANIELBLOOM said...




Andy Revkin Retweeted Reddit AskScience
Thanks, heaps, to the @RedditAskSci community for offering so many great questions in my #AMA on 30 years of lessons learned writing on climate change. For others, here's one question and portal to the rest: https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/8tpl4i/askscience_ama_series_im_andrew_revkin_the/e19eo5b …Andy Revkin added,

Reddit AskScience