Monday, February 3, 2014

Article from NY Times - About Being a Scientific Advocate

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/if-you-see-something-say-something.html

Michael E. Mann is director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University and the author of “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines", and is the author to the above article. James Hansen is former director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and an activist who has been arrested multiple times for protesting things such as, the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf. He also has released a paper basically saying that we need to reduce our fossil fuel emissions rapidly if we are to stop the bad pattern in climate change. Steven Schneider is a former colleague of Michael Mann and worked at Stanford University was an advocate for promoting change for scientific facts studied and not needing to be completely quite about speaking out, he passed away in 2010. This article starts off discussing that Climate Change should not be a debated issue and that it should be recognized by all as an issue to move forward and create change.It basically discussing whether, because one is a scientist should they just do their research and not be outspoken about the implications, but he doesn't believe this is a radical view simply that Scientists are citizens as well and should be able to express their discoveries.

Richard Alley Speaker at Seattle Science Festival - Opinion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aS6S-lCRSI

I think some important points that Richard Alley makes is that when we look at climate change data it cannot be from just a short period, say under 10 years, because these trends may show cooling but overall the global temperature is rising. He also points out Carbon Dioxide rising is a cause and is created by human burning fossil fuels into the atmosphere. Finally, a huge point I think he makes is that we need to learn how to use our resources wisely before we burn them all away. One question that i would want to ask to him would be, Since we are burning our resources faster than they are coming, what kind of developments are we making to change how we use and not burn those resources? Richard Alley is a Professor at the Pennsylvania State University, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, has studied ice cores up to two miles deep, and is a highly respected scientists. He also is a recipient of the Noble Prize, along side Al Gore for their efforts into studying and presenting issue of climate change.