16 / SEEDWORLD.COM DECEMBER 2017 IT’S HARD TO believe that in the modern age, people can still be afraid of talking science. For a lot of researchers, that fear comes from discussing climate change with the public, despite the majority scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity are causing changes in the climate. “I feel like I need to be careful when I talk about climate change. It speaks to a lot of things right now,” says Molly Cadle-Davidson, chief scientific officer for ABM based in Geneva, New York. Cadle-Davidson, an expert in the field of genet- ics and well-versed in the application of genomics and next-generation sequencing techniques for trait-based microbial research and development, says she’s often faced with a problem all too common among researchers — how to talk about human-caused climate change without creating controversy, and whether to talk about it at all. “If the audience is unknown to me I will ask conference organizers if I can bring up the issue of climate change. There are people who just don’t want to discuss it or hear it talked about, and as a scientist, that can pose a huge challenge. How do you communicate the message if you can’t talk about something so important?” According to a recent Yale Program on Climate Change Communication survey, 70 percent of Americans now believe global warming is happen- ing. However, only 53 percent believe it is caused by human activities in the form of greenhouse gas emissions. Only 33 percent say they discuss the topic at least occasionally. A majority of Americans do support policy changes aimed at curbing global warming. Over 80 percent want to see research funding for renewable energy sources, 75 percent want to regulate CO2, while almost 70 percent want to set strict CO2 limits on existing coal-fired power plants. While those numbers are encouraging, rejection of climate change data is still a powerful force, with still half of Americans continuing to be skeptical of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. And it’s still a very powerful force in agriculture, notes Claudia Wagner-Riddle, professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. She studies mitigation of green- house gas emissions and what farmers can do to reduce production of greenhouse gases on-farm. “The farming community is becoming more convinced in regard to climate change, but there are still views out there along the lines of, ‘Yes, the climate is changing, but there’s no good proof of what is causing it.’ That’s unfortunate, because we have plenty of evidence that it is caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Problem is, the science is difficult to convey in a simple way.” Why the Denial? Climate change rejection/denial is prevalent on social media, and according to Wagner-Riddle, a major hurdle for scientists to try and get over. We Need to Talk About Climate Change Despite fears about doing so, scientists can talk openly about the reality of global warming. There are some clever ways to help you do so. Marc Zienkiewicz mzienkiewicz@issuesink.com 70% of Americans believe global warming is happening 53% believe it is caused by humans 33% percent say they discuss the topic at least occasionally