The Burden of Expectation on Climate Scientists

Kate Marvel spends her days playing with climate models, which she says are “like a very expensive version of The Sims.” As a physicist she gets tired of being asked to weigh in on economics, geopolitics, and despair — but she still defends the right of scientists to have strong feelings about the planet.

• SOURCES:
  • Kate Marvel, climate scientist and science writer.

• RESOURCES:
  • Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet, by Kate Marvel (2025).
  • "Are Americans Concerned About Global Warming?" (Gallup, 2024).
  • "Can clouds buy us more time to solve climate change?" by Kate Marvel (TED, 2017).
  • SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, by Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt (2011).
  • "Global Warming’s Six Americas," (Yale Program on Climate Change Communication).
  • "Fred Rogers: Look for the Helpers."