There were quite a few issues at this year’s AGU meeting, which kept me thinking. “Science & General Public” was one of them. Selling the science you are doing seems to have become a hot-button issue – especially with climate change (not) finding its way into government policies.
Sessions were held, on how to lobby policy makers on $Capitol_Hill (insert the location of your law-making body here) and on how to communicate findings to the general public, your friends and neighbors. The objective is clear: “Get your message out & secure future funding”. And communicate to the public, where the real science is done! More and more (the less honest) policy makers and lobbyists support their “opinion” with people claiming to be scientists – some of them even having some sort of scientific education/background – to push their agenda. These advisors send out over-simplified messages without giving evidence and large parts of the public believe them, because their ideas and conclusions sound plausible and are easy to understand.
So making real scientific findings understandable and plausible for the public is a growing concern and I have to say that for me this is not an easy task. I find it difficult to reduce the complexity of certain issues without sacrificing some of the results – the line between oversimplification and a concise, reduced (but true!) picture easy enough to understand for the general public is a very fine one. Even finer, if it is about advising policy makers.
Something to keep in mind and to work on for me! It is not always easy to leave the Ivory Tower 😉