Why Climate Science Doesn't Unite Us But Energy Technology Does

Climate science was supposed to unite peoples across ideological and national boundaries. Instead, America's two political parties are more divided over global warming than ever before — despite two decades and billions in climate science and awareness campaigns. Now, despite over a decade of fierce climate wars, liberals and conservatives are increasingly finding agreement on the need for stepped up energy innovation. Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, authors of Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, and co-authors of Post-Partisan Power with scholars from the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution, will describe what it is about technology that has, throughout American history, historically united conservatives and liberals — and what it is about science that has divided them. 

Two of the recent books by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus will be available for review and purchase after the lecture.

Anyone outside NIST wishing to attend must be sponsored by a NIST employee and receive a visitor badge. 

For more information, contact Kum Ham at 301-975-4203. 

Colloquia are videotaped and available in the NIST Research Library.