I spoke on climate change, solar and communication as described in this post last week. Good audience engagement as this IEEE Chapter is known for. Thank you to everyone who attended!

Slides are here.

There are a few backup slides at the end showing some poll data on beliefs about climate change and solar in the USA.

I’ll be speaking to the IEEE Santa Clara Valley PhotoVoltaic Joint Society Chapter, at 7pm on Wednesday, February 11 (refreshments and networking are from 6:30 to 7).

Please join me if you can! There’s no charge and no registration is necessary.

Details about the talk.
More information about the IEEE SVPVS.

Here is the abstract for the talk:

Rapidly accelerating adoption of solar energy is urgent. A recent article in Nature suggests fossil-fuel exploration should cease globally and that only one-third of known reserves should be burned to limit catastrophic damage from climate change.

This urgent need is not widely recognized or understood because the situation is new, dramatic, complex, and countered by well-funded lobbying and media interests.

Technically literate people must address this chasm between reality and perception. Only we can grapple with spurious “research” findings and partisan media assertions, and only we can translate technical jargon into understandable content. We also should recognize that in order to cast doubt onto findings that challenge vested interests, scientists and science itself are under attack.

How to bridge this chasm by communicating with less technical people, is the focus of this talk. Technical people are persuasive to those who share the desire for rigor, but we are often much less able to persuade ideological people who lack tools for assessing the validity of quantitative conclusions.

The focus of this talk is on communication. Whether you agree or disagree that climate change poses a threat, or that solar power is the best or only way to deal with it, I believe you’ll find the communication strategies intriguing.

Lots of good things: Meet great people, partake in free refreshments, and collect a copy of a book on climate change in the US I’ll be handing out (free of charge)! I hope to see you there.

Doug

PS: If you’re not familiar with the IEEE SVPVS, the speaker series is (almost) always on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, same time, same place. Previous speakers are here.