Urgency & Agency in the Battle to Avert a Climate Crisis

Michael E. Mann is the distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State and the director of the Earth System Science Center, also at Penn State. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth’s climate system.

Human-caused climate change represents arguably the greatest threat we face as a civilization. Efforts to attack and deny the scientific evidence have constituted a major impediment to action over the past two decades. At a time when we appear to be moving past outright denial of the problem, another obstacle has emerged on the scene: Doomist framing that exaggerates the threat in such a way as to make catastrophic changes seem unavoidable. Such framing can lead us down the very same path of inaction as outright denial of the problem. It is important, in the end, to emphasize both urgency and agency in climate change communication efforts.

He has received a number of honors and awards and contributed, with other IPCC authors, to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2017 he received the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication from Climate One, the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018, and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2019. Mann is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and four books.