Temperatures over both the Lower 48 United States and the planet have steadily warmed in recent decades. Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading in Britain, sought to illustrate this warming in the most straightforward way possible.
So he created visualizations of the course of temperature over time using strictly a series of color-coded stripes. You might mistake them for modern art, carpet patterns ...
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Views from the Graduate Seminar
By Rachel Brooks, GCC Fellow & PhD Student
As the Global Change program develops, so do the required courses for the PhD-students and Fellows. This year we added a new “advanced” seminar session that is student lead and designed. After a few introductory seminars lead by Jeff Walters and Bruce Hull, we (the students) spent time brainstorming and planning the rest of the semester. With the help of numerous sticky notes and a few whiteboard markers, our seminar agenda emerged: practicing science ...
Read More →We are proud of IGC Fellow, Max Ragozzino, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Entomology at Virginia Tech. Max recently participated in the Center of Communicating Science’s “Nutshell Games”, where graduate students were encouraged to describe their research “in a 90-second nutshell”. Max nailed this challenge and tied with two other contestants for first place!
Congratulations, Max!
In a landmark ruling nearly a decade ago, a federal judge ordered tobacco companies to stop lying.
After listening to 84 witnesses and perusing tens of thousands of exhibits, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler of the District of Columbia took a year to write a 1,652-page opinion detailing the companies’ elaborate strategy to deny ...
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BLACKSBURG, Va., Nov. 24, 2015 – Virginia Tech students recently learned that a well-written scientific abstract is helpful, but a good elevator speech can be more important for acquiring support for research projects.
Graduate students — from the departments of fish and wildlife conservation, biological sciences, entomology, and more — practiced talking about their research with experts from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science.
The Global Change Center at Virginia Tech partnered with one of its faculty ...
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Had a great time discussing #SciComm, #lobbying and #ClimateChange with @VTSuN @globalchangevt and Water IGEPs today! @VTGradCommunity
— Marina E Vance (@marinavance) September 11, 2015
Three Virginia Tech interdisciplinary graduate education programs (IGEPs) recently met in Torgerson Hall to discuss the documentary film, “Merchants of Doubt”. ...
From the New York Times (June 15, 2015)
The job interviewer scrutinized the young American geology student sitting across from him. She was about to graduate from the Royal School of Mines in London, and was trying to break into a field long unwelcoming to women.
What, he wanted to know, might she have to contribute to the geology of mining? Naomi Oreskes had a simple answer: “I want to find ...
Read More →We’re stymied in solving the climate change problem because of an underlying challenge – a communication failure – rooted in language and ideology. Aspects of this failure include how scientists communicate, how some people confound the science with the solutions, and an active disinformation campaign designed to cast doubt. Resolution of the communication failure is essential, as it can unleash our ability to solve the climate problem.
Susan Joy Hassol is a climate change communicator, analyst, and ...
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A major part of the mission of the Interfaces of Global Change Ph.D. program (IGC) at Virginia Tech is to help graduate students identify the different positive roles that they can play in society. Effective communication of scientific information to audiences with diverse backgrounds will be central to their success, regardless of what role they pursue. By developing the skills to make accurate science accessible to broader audiences, the students can help citizens make informed decisions that affect their own health, the environment, ...
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The Interfaces of Global Change IGEP recently held their Spring Retreat at the Skelton Conference Center at Virginia Tech. The day included a special seminar featuring Susan Joy Hassol, Director of Climate Communication, based in Boulder, Colorado and Asheville, North Carolina. In her presentation titled, “The Climate Change Story”, she addressed both the scientific evidence for climate change as well as the need for effective communication strategies when talking about climate change ...
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