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Geofysisk institutt

GFI/BCCR Seminar: Decadal-scale trends and experiences in outreach

Hovedinnhold

Helge Drange (GFI, UiB):

Decadal-scale trends and experiences in outreach

 

Abstract
At a national meeting discussing the first nationally coordinated climate research and modelling project in Norway in the mid 1990’s, I was accused by the a prominent Professor from a(nother) major city in Norway to talk as a “car selling person”. The comment was neither meant nor received as a compliment, but the fact is that this comment (or at least the mentioned meeting) - together with other circumstances at the same time - initiated the development of the Bergen Climate Model, the first Norwegian climate model and one of four European climate models taking part in the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007.

Being surrounded by a group of highly qualified colleagues with background in atmospheric and oceanic sciences as well as in modelling/numerics - and at a time when the climate wake-up call was rising on the horizon - the group received requests from media on a near daily basis. A combination of the alleged “car selling abilities”, that the majority of the colleagues were/still are (?) most confident doing their office-science, that some of the national journalists (and media houses) were genuinely interested in climate and that I used to have problems saying no, I became a sort of media puppet of the group. And once a name is on a journalist’s notebook, it will hardly be erased…

In the presentation I will provide some thoughts - and possibly some advices - based on two decades of experience with media and outreach. A few anecdotes may be revealed as well. Whereas science has hopefully been a common denominator for most of the media and outreach activities, this talk will be as science-free as it possibly could be...