Talking to Roger Pielke jr. (Audio)

You might call Roger Pielke Jr., the son of the highly respected
Climatologist Roger Pielke Sr., an Environmental Political
scientist who analyzes the atmospheric disruptions between
Science and Politics. And because, with the looming apocalypse,
this represents mined terrain, Dr. Pielke, who's been awarded
international prizes and honorary doctorates for his work and
served as director of the Center for Science and Technology
Policy Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has found
himself at the center of a campaign that made him, as he puts it,
the Voldemort of climate science. Paradoxically, this label has
nothing to do with Pielke's measured observations, delivered with
the beautiful clarity of a true scientist, but solely with the
veritable religious furor that activists and world-savers have
brought to the debate. This position of Pielke's is based on a
timeless scientific ethos, which never allows itself to become
aligned with any cause - knowing that the cost of such activism
is sacrificing science's integrity. On the other hand, the
liminal position between Science and Politics has made him highly
sensitive - so when Mary Douglas' name comes up in the
conversation, he's immediately familiar with her institutional
theory and mentions Steve Rayner's work, appropriately titled The
Social Construction of Ignorance, explaining that institutions
are not necessarily formed to produce new knowledge, but often to
keep uncomfortable or inconvenient learning out of sight. But
because Pielke is stubborn enough to endure even the disruptive
and inappropriate, he doesn't shy away from the adversity - he
only points out at the end of the conversation; however, that
contradiction is more manageable at an advanced age and that
Academia might not be the ideal place for an up-and-coming Roger
Pielke III’s career choices.


Roger Pielke has published.


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