{"id":3928,"date":"2019-10-17T22:38:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T22:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2019-10-17T22:38:52","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T22:38:52","slug":"living-at-the-intersection-of-climate-science-and-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2019\/10\/17\/living-at-the-intersection-of-climate-science-and-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Living at the Intersection of Climate Science and Action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

by Lauren Gifford
PhD, CSTPR Research Affiliate (and friend of Jane\u2019s)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane Zelikova has always enjoyed spending time outside and getting her hands dirty, which is one of the reasons she fell in love with ecology. An ecosystem scientist whose work connects climate change science and policy, Jane grew up in Ukraine and immigrated to the United States when she was 12. She earned a PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from CU Boulder, and has worked across the western US and abroad, examining the effects of global change in natural and managed systems. She is Senior Scientist at Carbon180<\/a>, a non-profit organization that brings together scientists, policymakers, and businesses to fundamentally rethink carbon. Jane also co-founded 500 Women Scientists<\/a> and Hey Girl Productions.<\/a> She lives in Boulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of her CSTPR Seminar on November 6<\/a>, I sat down with Jane to ask her a few questions about her role as a scientist\/activist.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) What is the quick version of how\nyou came to bridge the worlds of science, communication and activism?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science\nand communication are two sides of the same coin. I am interested in science because\nI am a curious person, and I want to understand how the world works. But my own\nunderstanding is not meaningful (at least to me) unless it\u2019s shared in a way\nthat is accessible, both to other scientists and to folks outside of science.\nActivism is the next logical step in my mind – knowledge can be a powerful\ntool, used to help or harm. It\u2019s important to me that the work we do as\nscientists is used for good, which means both communicating it in accessible\nways and sometimes advocating for action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activism\nis in my DNA – I grew up in the Soviet Union, fed a steady diet of communist\nideals at school, and a healthy dose of criticism of communism at home. I\u2019ve\nalways had a strong sense of right and wrong (often missing the moral grey area\nand struggling with the concept of compromise). I was an outspoken kid,\nadolescent, and adult. Activism is the next step; it\u2019s saying out loud what\nfeels off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) What does science activism look\nlike? You are one of the founders of 500 Women Scientists– is that a type of\nscience activism?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science\nactivism can come in many forms. For me, it can mean calling out inequities and\namplifying the voices of under-represented groups. Following the 2016\npresidential election, fellow CU alum Kelly Ramirez and I founded 500 Women\nScientists, a global grassroots effort to make science more open, inclusive,\nand accessible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activism is very personal, and it doesn\u2019t start or end with public marches or signing petitions. I think it\u2019s a daily commitment to helping make our corner of the world a better place. It can mean recognizing all the ways science falls short and actively working to right those wrongs. For example, all-male panels, awards going to mostly white men, journalists consulting only white men – it\u2019s all so pervasive that calling it out just isn\u2019t enough. So we launched the Request a Woman Scientist<\/a> platform to make it easy to find women experts to invite as a keynote or consult for a story. We also see that the majority of the efforts to make science more inclusive come from the folks who are most marginalized, often women of color. So, we are launching a fellowship for women of color to recognize and support those efforts. With a successful last round of fundraising<\/a> this fall, we can support our first cohort of fellows starting in January 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) Do you believe scientists have an\nobligation to activism, or advocacy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndon\u2019t believe every scientist has an obligation to be an activist. But I do\nbelieve science touches the lives\nof every person on this planet, and scientists have the knowledge and positions\nof privilege to speak out in service of society, especially on topics where we\nhave expertise. Many of us have experienced first-hand the structural\ninequities and biases in science, and we are in the best positions to advocate\nfor and work towards justice and equality in science (and beyond). Many of us\nalso work on issues that are deeply personal and reach beyond the ivory tower –\nclimate change, public health, biodiversity loss – these issues affect us, and\nthe people and places we love. We should feel empowered to advocate on behalf\nof our neighbors, our communities, our treasured places, ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) What advice do you have for\nundergrads or graduate students on how they might think about sharing science\noutside of a university setting?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where science should be shared – outside of the academic chatter, outside the university setting, out in the world where your science can serve the public. My advice is to share not just the facts, but also the joy and curiosity and adventure that working in science can bring. Most people are curious about the world and wonder how things work. That\u2019s all science! The thing that sets scientists apart from everyone else are the methods we use to \u201cwonder.\u201d But we don\u2019t own that space and we don\u2019t have all the answers, so don\u2019t be afraid to ask, to think outside the box, and to be yourself in science! And we can work together to make science more accessible and inclusive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5) You often work on science documentaries, and you were featured in the short film The End of Snow<\/a>. Do you think media like film, television, podcasts, etc. are a good way to share the \u201cwonder\u201d you mentioned? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YES!\nI am a mass consumer of media – I binge TV shows, podcasts, and \u201ctrashy\u201d\nnovels. Successful communication is all about making an emotional connection,\ntapping into some greater wisdom, and harnessing the power of curiosity – and\nmediums like television and podcasts successfully tap into those themes. To our\nown detriment, we have excised emotion and wonder from science, opting for\nsterile delivery of facts as if that removes our human biases (it doesn\u2019t). I\nthink bringing art and science together can free us from those sterile\nconstraints and make science not only more interesting for the general public,\nbut richer and more fulfilling for us! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Lauren GiffordPhD, CSTPR Research Affiliate (and friend of Jane\u2019s) Jane Zelikova has always enjoyed spending time outside and getting her hands dirty, which is one of the reasons she fell in love with ecology. An ecosystem scientist whose work … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentaries"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-31 22:03:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3930,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3928\/revisions\/3930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}