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The Blue Dot Report: NASA's Josh Willis On How To Talk About Climate Change

NASA

This transcript has been lightly edited

Climate change is one of the most daunting problems facing our global civilization. And while world leaders struggle to find solutions, scientists continue to compile the compelling evidence of a planet being warmed by human activity. Climate scientists are people too, and they have to talk to their friends and family members who may still be skeptical or ambivalent about what can seem like an overwhelming issue.

Josh Willis is an oceanographer and climate specialist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Dave Schlom: Josh, you’re an actual climate scientist. Do you have difficulty some time in talking to your friends and family?

Josh Willis: All the time. You know, climate science is a complicated subject. I often say that when we're trained in science, we spend about six years learning how to talk to each other and forgetting how to talk to everybody else.

DS: What are some of the ways you found to talk to people that are effective?

JW: Well, I like to tell jokes. I think comedy is a great way to relate to people, and also to open up lines of communication that are sometimes difficult or politically charged.

DS: Well, one of my favorite stories is about how your wife made you a special business card — could you share that with us?

JW: So a few years ago I wrote a paper and it had sort of a surprising result. Rush Limbaugh actually talked about it on the radio. And he had this quote, he said (in best Limbaugh impersonation): “to overturn the world economy based on the musings of a few idiot leftist scientists is just stupid — and that's what global warming is actually all about.”

So some time later, my wife actually had some business cards printed up for me to have “Idiot Leftist Scientist” as my job title.

DS: It seems like you enjoy doing climate outreach. Do you get to do very much of this?

JW: I do one or two sort of public talks every month, and a lot of interviews like his one. But I also try and reach out to people other ways. Last year I actually wrote and directed, along with a very good friend of mine Rani O’Brien, this show about climate change that was for kids. It was a sketch comedy called “The Lollygaggers,” and it was filled with music and puppets and big characters and it was all about climate change.

DS: For those of us who are not climate scientists, what are some tips you could give us about how to deal with skeptical friends and family?

JW: I always say open with a joke. You know, scientists have been monitoring these ice shelves. That have been breaking up and they've figured out that these ice shelves are over 10,000 years old. I mean the only thing older than they are to be breaking up is Hugh Hefner.

DS: If there was one thing you'd like us all to know about your work, what would it be?

JW: Well I think it’s that, as a climate scientist, I look at the data and I see the impacts of global warming on our planet every day. Global warming is definitely real, it’s definitely caused by people, and I think it’s time for us to stop messing around and figure out what to do about it.

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.