Distilling the Essence of Climate Change Complexity

I am teaching two journalism classes this semester, with climate change being a main focus these past few weeks. We had an obvious news peg in Sunday's big climate march and the gathering of world leaders this week in NYC. Students in both classes have received climate change 101 lessons from me--where the body of science stands, who the largest carbon emitters are, the known and projected impacts, the tricky (global) politics, the wicked nature of the problem, and so on. It's a lot to take in for the uninitiated, which includes nearly all my students. Additionally, they have to navigate the shouty public conversation. So imagine what happens when they come across an op-ed (in a major newspaper) headlined, "Climate Science is Not Settled." The Wall Street Journalcommentary by a respected scientist generated finger-wagging reactions and a stern rebuke from some in the climate science community. Others were more ...