Just as there are many different purposes and roles of science in society, so there are many different roles that scientists can adopt in relation to the science they produce.

In this talk I will explore four of these roles—analyst, advisor, advocate, activist—partly inspired by Roger Pielke’s categorisation in his book ‘The Honest Broker’.  At different times, and for different reasons, scientists may adopt different roles, but it is important to be explicit and honest for your audience about which role you are adopting.

Different roles express different understandings of the relationship between ‘facts’ and ‘values’, and expose scientists to different risks to their public status and credibility.  Beyond scientists’ roles in relation to the science they create, scientists may also adopt the broader mantles of citizens, educators, public intellectuals and change agents.

The talk will illustrate using examples drawn from climate science, climate policy advice, and climate activism.  For answering the big questions prompted by climate change, we also need to ask why does science matter, and whether scientists have any privileged voice in society.

Mike Hulme is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Cambridge and Professorial Fellow at Pembroke College. From 2000 to 2007, he was the Founding Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary research center based at the University of East Anglia (UEA). In 2007, he led the preparation of climate scenarios and reports for the UK Government and received a personalized certificate from the Nobel Peace Prize committee in recognition of his ‘significant contribution’ to the work of the United Nations’ IPCC. 

He is best known as the author of Why We Disagree About Climate Change, published in 2009 by Cambridge University Press, which was named by The Economist as one of their four Books of the Year for science and technology in December 2009. He is also the author of Weathered: Cultures of Climate (2017), Can Science Fix Climate Change? A Case Against Climate Engineering (2014), and Reducing the Future to Climate: a Story of Climate Determinism and Reductionism (2011).

Sur place
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE-IPSL)
Amphi Galilée, à coté du bâtiment 714 du LSCE
Orme des Merisiers 91190 Saint-Aubin

En visio
https://uci.zoom.us/my/elsa.abs