The Parrot and the Igloo: Sherwood Rowland’s Question

NYUAD Institute

Sherwood Rowland was a Nobel-winning climate scientist who asked, in 1986, in The New Yorker: “What’s the point of having developed a science well enough to make predictions—if, in the end, all we’re willing to do is stand around and wait for them to come true?” In 1979, scientists warned lawmakers to expect the climate shifts in “forty years.” And in 1956, scientist and scholar Roger Revelle warned Time readers: “In fifty years or so, this process [carbon dioxide warming] may have a violent effect on the Earth’s climate.” Why were our warnings so good, and our response so poor? And how can we make up for lost time? Speaker David Lipsky, Author, "The Parrot and the Igloo: Climate and the Science of Denial" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2023); Artist-in-Residence, Creative Writing Program, NYU