We’re beginning our season-long discussion on climate change with the cold hard facts, not the hot takes. Although we will talk to many scientific experts this season, our first two guests are specifically focused on our atmosphere.
Both interviews were edited down to fit within the time constraints of this podcast. The edited version of this podcast is located at the top of this page. Below, you’ll find the full, uninterrupted interviews with all of our guests.
Starting the conversation off is Dr. Barry Keim, who serves as the Louisiana State Climatologist. He’s also a faculty member in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at LSU where he teaches and conducts research on climate change and variability, extreme climate events, hydroclimatology and human dimensions of global change.
Although he spends a lot of time looking at data, he’s no stranger to the Louisiana coast. He was born in Chalmette and raised in New Orleans. He knows the value of our coastal communities so he has a particular passion for understanding how the weather will impact its future.
Our second guest, Dr. Josh Eachus, was actually a student of Dr. Keim. As the chief meteorologist for WBRZ, Channel 2 in Baton Rouge he is a direct line of communication between the data and the public. His doctoral research focused on how to effectively communicate those weather messages, especially during high impact events such as hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. Things we know all too much about in the south.
Weather impacts every single one of us, but how we respond to potential threats really depends on how the message is presented. This is where psychology and meteorology collide. And we’ve seen how much damage can be done when a message isn’t conveyed properly.
Finally, I’d like to introduce you to one of the members of our Futures Fund family. Meet Program Director Dominique Dallas!
Mentioned in this episode
The three most powerful hurricanes in Louisiana’s recorded history include:
1856 - Last Island Hurricane
2020 - Hurricane Laura
2021 - Hurricane Ida
Terms
The purpose of this season is to really learn and grow our understanding as well as our vocabulary. So, each episode we will include some terms mentioned in the episode that will help you better understand conversations related to climate change and variability.
Anthropogenic - of, relating to, or resulting from the influence of human beings on nature.
Chaos Theory - a mathematics theory that is still in development. It is the study of apparently random or unpredictable behavior in systems governed by deterministic law.
Clausius-Clapeyron Equation - related the heat of vaporization and vapor pressure. Vapor pressure rises non-linearly as temperature rises since the y-term in this case is a natural log of the vapor pressure. The equation can be used to solve for the heat of vaporization or the vapor pressure at any temperature.
Cry Wolf Syndrome - a behavioral syndrome that leads the manufacturer to become less compliant with the forecaster’s valuable recommendations after the forecaster is proven guilty of false alarms.
Recency bias - is a cognitive bias that favors recent events over historic ones; a memory bias. Recently bias gives “greater importance to the most recent event.” An article published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science published in 2016 states, “In the domain of climate change in particular, a number of psychological barriers and biases may disrupt typical discourse and reflection and may even prevent those who are aware of climate change from taking action to mitigate or reduce its impact.”
Risk Communicators - the real-time exchange of information, advice and opinions between experts or officials and people who face a threat (from a hazard) to their survival, health, or economic or social wellbeing.
What the scientists say