So what should scientists do when politicians make provably false statements about climate change (see: Rick Perry) and other scientific issues? My employer, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, is hosting a pretty good/lively/funny roundtable on this very question. And I’m not kidding; humor is included. In today’s entry, former scientist and current Hollywood filmmaker Randy Olson (who’s also the author of the book Don’t Be Such a Scientist*) gives the public opinion battle between climate change scientists and climate change deniers a name: “Cub Scouts versus the Mafia.”
You really might LOL. Take look.
* Here’s the opening paragraph of a review of Don’t Be Such a Scientist from The Times Higher Education site:
OK, here goes. I’m going to write this review in the style suggested by Randy Olson. This means that I’m going to use my penis. Not literally, you understand – that would be exhausting, anatomically complicated and likely quite illegible. Blame Olson for that mental image, by the way. I’m only following his advice – for this is the opening gambit of Don’t Be Such a Scientist: the suggestion that scientists should stop intellectualising everything they communicate. Sometimes you need to stop using your head and just get it out there, he suggests. For good communicators, the power of expression comes from the heart, from the guts and yes, sometimes even the “lower sex organs”, if I understand him correctly.
John Mecklin, writer/editor 