Susan Joy Hassol's guest appearances

Susan Joy Hassol

Forecast: climate conversations with Michael White

Background Briefing with Ian Masters

Geoversiv - Earth Intelligence

Flanigan's Eco-Logic

Michael Mann

Nancy MacLean

Sarah Williams

Arlie Hochschild

Thomas Frank

Kurt Andersen

Michael McDonald

Lawrence Lessig

David Hill

Martin Lawrence

Adam Schiff

Nicole Huberfeld

Sebastian Junger

Scott Kennedy

Ian Johnson

OwlTail

Leah Litman

Henry Pontell

The Supreme Court Guts Voting Rights and Hands a Gift to the Koch Brothers | Will Indictments Against the Trump Organization and Its CFO be Enough to Nail Trump? | Climate Change is Behind the Record Heat in Canada and the Northwestbackgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Supreme Court Guts Voting Rights and Hands a Gift to the Koch Brothers | Will Indictments Against the Trump Organization and Its CFO be Enough to Nail Trump? | Climate Change is Behind the Record Heat in Canada and the Northwest <a href="http://backgroundbriefing.org/donate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">backgroundbriefing.org/donate</a> <a href="http://twitter.com/ianmastersmedia" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">twitter.com/ianmastersmedia</a> <a href="http://facebook.com/ianmastersmedia" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">facebook.com/ianmastersmedia</a>

July 1, 2021 - Leah Litman | Henry Pontell | Susan Joy Hassol

Susan Joy Hassol is one of the foremost climate communications specialist in the world.  She has been the writer behind three of the National Climate Assessments, using language that non-scientists can comprehend.    In this episode, the award winning mind behind the award winning HBO documentary "Too Hot Not to Handle," tracts in Scientific American, the Washington Post , ABC's 2020 and much more, will share with you real talk about how to make sense of climate science, and even, how to talk to your Uncle Frank who believes the science of climate change is a hoax.  She is fluent in science, having been honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a board member of the American Geophysical Union, she knows success lies in how science tells its story in plain talk.  After butting her head against closed door minds, she has learned how to enter the side and back doors.  She shares some tips and techniques on having "The Conversation."  Scientists trust her with their findings.  You will trust her, too.You can learn more about Susan Joy at climatecommunication.org

Susan Joy Hassol is one of the foremost climate communications specialist in the world.  She has been the writer behind three of the National Climate Assessments, using language that non-scientists can comprehend.    In this episode, the award winning mind behind the award winning HBO documentary "Too Hot Not to Handle," tracts in Scientific American, the Washington Post , ABC's 2020 and much more, will share with you real talk about how to make sense of climate science, and even, how to talk to your Uncle Frank who believes the science of climate change is a hoax.  She is fluent in science, having been honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a board member of the American Geophysical Union, she knows success lies in how science tells its story in plain talk.  After butting her head against closed door minds, she has learned how to enter the side and back doors.  She shares some tips and techniques on having "The Conversation."  Scientists trust her with their findings.  You will trust her, too. You can learn more about Susan Joy at <a href="http://climatecommunication.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">climatecommunication.org</a>

Susan Joy Hassol - The Common Language of Climate Change - 028

https://forecastpod.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/episode_25_susan_joy_hassol.mp3 Language is spectacularly imprecise. Susan Joy Hassol from Climate Communication has made a career out of studying how to — and how not to — use language to most effectively communicate climate science to a broad audience.Susan Joy HassolWell, you might think, surely this isn’t too complicated. But step back for a moment and think about some of the terms you’ll see on a daily basis in the formal language of climate scientists speaking to one another: THC, aerosols, enhance, error, bias, negative emissions, positive feedback, positive trend. These words might sound innocuous enough in a scientific context, but to a non-scientist, or even to scientists from a different field, these words can have entirely different meanings: the active ingredient in marijuana, spray cans, make better, mistake, preconceived notion, bad emissions, something good, a helpful development. Susan has worked for years to collate a list of these and other trigger words, as well as suggested replacements. If you see yourself using potentially confusing terminology in public communication, then you might like to check out the articles in Physics Today and EOS on the resources page of Susan’s website (which, by the way, is an excellent resource for all manner of climate communication info!). Susan’s career provides a great example of how to build a non-academic career in climate science. It’s possible, but you need a passion for what you’re doing, and the ability to pull together a diverse line of work. Susan started with a long stint as a writer/communicator for the Aspen Global Change Institute, followed by an increasingly diverse portfolio including one-on-one coaching, running communication workshops, writing a documentary for HBO, serving as the Senior Science Writer for the National Climate Assessments,  and a great deal of public outreach, including a terrific TEDx talk. Susan grew up in a four-generation apartment in Brooklyn, with Yiddish spoken. Her parents always said she was a good communicator, and that’s certainly remained true. From her years of experience with climate communication, some of Susan’s take-home messages are:  Good communication means “simple, clear messages repeated often by a variety of trusted sources”. Stories are important: you have to speak for the facts, which don’t speak for themselves. Speak a common language: “…while there is always complexity, I find that the basic story in many cases is really pretty straightforward”. Use analogies. Instead of talking about gigatons of annual meltwater from Greenland, try saying that it is like the water use of LA for a year. Talk about hope and urgency in climate discussions. Hope and worry motivate action; fear and despair do not. Emphasize that we still have a choice. Do you want just a few more days per year like the currently hottest day … or a month more?  Sometimes, community inertia on communication is so strong that it can difficult to break through. Susan was invited to speak at a National Academy meeting on the recent reduced rate of global warming — you know where I’m going with this — and emphasized that “hiatus” was a misleading term, both scientifically and for communication. But the message didn’t take: “…everybody shook their head and agreed with me and then they kept on calling it the hiatus”. The point, perhaps, being that it is probably worthwhile for the community to discuss and define terminology before it’s too late. In the end, in spite of the many ways that the messaging of climate science can go haywire, and the many challenges that climate change will bring, Susan left me with one of the more optimistic viewpoints I’ve heard on Forecast. Renewables are growing rapidly and appeal to almost everyone, even if you don’t believe in climate change; China is backing off coal; mitigation provides clearly better outcomes if implemented soon and aggressively. Not only that, but Susan also went to the same high school on Long Island as Steve Schneider!*

<a href="https://forecastpod.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/episode_25_susan_joy_hassol.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://forecastpod.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/episode_25_susan_joy_hassol.mp3</a> Language is spectacularly imprecise. Susan Joy Hassol from <a href="https://www.climatecommunication.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Climate Communication</a> has made a career out of studying how to — and how not to — use language to most effectively communicate climate science to a broad audience.Susan Joy Hassol Well, you might think, surely this isn’t too complicated. But step back for a moment and think about some of the terms you’ll see on a daily basis in the formal language of climate scientists speaking to one another: THC, aerosols, enhance, error, bias, negative emissions, positive feedback, positive trend. These words might sound innocuous enough in a scientific context, but to a non-scientist, or even to scientists from a different field, these words can have entirely different meanings: the active ingredient in marijuana, spray cans, make better, mistake, preconceived notion, bad emissions, something good, a helpful development. Susan has worked for years to collate a list of these and other trigger words, as well as suggested replacements. If you see yourself using potentially confusing terminology in public communication, then you might like to check out the articles in Physics Today and EOS on the <a href="https://www.climatecommunication.org/resources/#articles" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">resources</a> page of Susan’s website (which, by the way, is an excellent resource for all manner of climate communication info!). Susan’s career provides a great example of how to build a non-academic career in climate science. It’s possible, but you need a passion for what you’re doing, and the ability to pull together a diverse line of work. Susan started with a long stint as a writer/communicator for the <a href="https://www.agci.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Aspen Global Change Institute</a>, followed by an increasingly diverse portfolio including one-on-one coaching, running communication workshops, writing <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Too-Hot-Not-Handle-Various/dp/B000G1R4UC?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">a documentary for HBO</a>, serving as the Senior Science Writer for the National Climate Assessments,  and a great deal of public outreach, including a terrific <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-tEmE85QDE" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">TEDx</a> talk. Susan grew up in a four-generation apartment in Brooklyn, with Yiddish spoken. Her parents always said she was a good communicator, and that’s certainly remained true. From her years of experience with climate communication, some of Susan’s take-home messages are: <ul> <li>Good communication means “simple, clear messages repeated often by a variety of trusted sources”.</li> <li>Stories are important: you have to speak for the facts, which don’t speak for themselves.</li> <li>Speak a common language: “…while there is always complexity, I find that the basic story in many cases is really pretty straightforward”.</li> <li>Use analogies. Instead of talking about gigatons of annual meltwater from Greenland, try saying that it is like the water use of LA for a year.</li> <li>Talk about hope and urgency in climate discussions. Hope and worry motivate action; fear and despair do not.</li> <li>Emphasize that we still have a choice. Do you want just a few more days per year like the currently hottest day … or a month more?</li> </ul> Sometimes, community inertia on communication is so strong that it can difficult to break through. Susan was invited to speak at a National Academy meeting on the recent reduced rate of global warming — you know where I’m going with this — and emphasized that “hiatus” was a misleading term, both scientifically and for communication. But the message didn’t take: “…everybody shook their head and agreed with me and then they kept on calling it the hiatus”. The point, perhaps, being that it is probably worthwhile for the community to discuss and define terminology before it’s too late. In the end, in spite of the many ways that the messaging of climate science can go haywire, and the many challenges that climate change will bring, Susan left me with one of the more optimistic viewpoints I’ve heard on Forecast. Renewables are growing rapidly and appeal to almost everyone, even if you don’t believe in climate change; China is backing off coal; mitigation provides clearly better outcomes if implemented soon and aggressively. Not only that, but Susan also went to the same high school on Long Island as Steve Schneider!*

Episode 25: Susan Joy Hassol