I watched the interview with Gina McCarthy on Climate Change. My final project is on the U.S. National (Wildland) Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS). A point made in the Gina McCarthy interview is that the key to combating climate change is not an over-focus on the science in a vacuum but instead acting on scientific knowledge. More specifically, the interview spoke to how the general public responds incorrectly because they don’t understand what uncertainty means in scientific data. This connects to my final project because the NFDRS organizes its findings to the general public in a set of correct responses to the current fire danger instead of the predictions on components of fire danger that the NFDRS outputs. In this way, because fire is a threat to many communities, society responds correctly without having to make a decision that will most likely be wrong given the overall misunderstanding about uncertainty. I wonder if a system like this would create a better response to climate change if implemented and if the implementation of a system in which society has less autonomy is implementable.
