13 December 2013

AGU Fall Meeting 2013: Thursday

Posted by Jessica Ball

Today was finally a chance to slow down and listen to people talk (instead off talking nonstop myself, which has of course resulted in the traditional mid-week AGU sore throat). In the morning I attended a public affairs session about the intersection of science and policy, something that I spend much of my time thinking about nowadays. In short, it’s imperative that scientists and policymakers learn to speak each others’ language, and that scientists recognize that the approach of ‘parachuting in’ and declaring their expertise doesn’t work.

This was also a theme of the Thriving Earth Exchange Town Hall I was a panelist for, where we were prompting discussion on the bottom-up approach of working with communities to find out how scientists can work with them. It was a great chance to get input from other AGU scientists about how they envision this kind of platform operating, and hopefully we’re well equipped to find new ways to connect with communities and apply our science.

By this time of the week I’m always pretty beat, and I’ve learned that I have to take a break and do some shopping or touristy things to decompress. At Christmas the Macy’s on Union Square has kittens and puppies in the windows for an adoption drive, and you can’t really beat that for relaxing. Tomorrow I’ll find a few more talks and posters to see, and then it will be time to wrap up the conference.