Science, politics focus of Mitchell Sustainability Lecture
The intersection of science and politics will be the focus of the 2015 Senator George J. Mitchell Lecture on Sustainability at the University of Maine on Oct. 15.
“When Science Meets Politics: Symphony or Slugfest?” will be presented by University of Colorado professor and author Roger Pielke Jr., at 1 p.m. in Hauck Auditorium. The event will include remarks by Sen. George J. Mitchell and will be followed by a reception in the Collins Center for the Arts.
The Mitchell Lecture on Sustainability, sponsored by UMaine’s Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, is free and open to the public. Tickets are available online. For more information or to request a disability accommodation, call 581.3196.
In an age of controversies in the media — from Deflategate in NFL football to the GMO debate — the role of expertise in decision making has proven challenging.
Perhaps foremost among these is the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will continue international negotiations on climate change, a generational challenge where progress has proven difficult.
In his lecture, Pielke will take a critical look at the contested terrain where science and politics meet. He has long studied this terrain and occasionally found himself embroiled in it. Pielke will argue that science and expertise are essential to good decision making. In particular, he will argue that better decision making requires more honest brokers in political debates and less partisanship played out through science. For politicians and experts alike, there are strong incentives against such honest brokering, Pielke says. However, better decision making requires that we better connect science and politics, and Pielke offers a hopeful message about how this might be done.
Pielke is a professor in the Environmental Studies Program and a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado. His research focuses on science, innovation and politics.
In 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Linköping University in Sweden and was also awarded the Public Service Award of the Geological Society of America. Before joining the faculty of the University of Colorado, Roger was a acientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
He is author, co-author or co-editor of seven books, including “The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics” and “The Climate Fix: What Scientists and Politicians Won’t Tell you About Global Warming.” His most recent book is “Rightful Place of Science: Disasters and Climate Change.”
Launched in 2007, the Senator George J. Mitchell Lecture on Sustainability serves as an extraordinary forum in which the university community, the general public, and many others can learn from and interact with some of the world’s leading thinkers about the challenges and opportunities involved in accelerating the transition to a sustainable world. Sharing the stage with these extraordinary thought leaders, Sen. Mitchell offers his compelling insights about the importance of sustainable development, a subject he first addressed in his 1991 book, “World on Fire: Saving an Endangered Earth.”
Contact: David Hart, 207.581.3257