Gradient Proof Podcast Episode 5 - Rethinking Climate Change with Douglas Wyatt

The Gradient Proof podcast featured Douglas Wyatt, an attorney with an interest in environmental law and technology, who has volunteered for over 20 years for the Foundation for Glacier Environmental Research. Wyatt discussed the changes he has observed in the glaciers over the years, including a significant reduction in the quantity of ice retained on the glacier fields. The foundation runs a yearly program in Alaska to study glaciers, provide education, and maintain one of the longest-running measures of a glacier system in the world. The podcast also features a conversation between Roy Peer and Douglas Wyatt, discussing the potential for bias in scientific research and the importance of scientific consensus in policymaking. They discuss the role of funding in shaping research outcomes and the need for a good peer review system to ensure neutrality. Wyatt emphasizes the importance of having a basic understanding of science to properly interpret data and make informed decisions. The conversation highlights the importance of scientific consensus and the need for transparency and accountability in scientific research. The podcast also touches on the importance of accountability and transparency in politics and the potential benefits of non-governmental funding for research.

HASHTAGS: #Glaciers #ScientificResearch #Climatechange #Environment #Science #ScienceEducation #Organization #Alaska

In this Episode:
[01:29] Biggest shift in observance standpoint
[05:35] Juneau icefield versus other glaciers
[09:29] The focus of the organization
[12:09] Estimated ages of the different parts of the ice field
[16:40] Most important work for Douglas Wyatt
[18:56] Bad Science
[20:27] Bias in funding organizations
[25:29] Accessible data to all people in the world
[30:08] Equal distribution of data
Whiskey:
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Bios
Douglas Wyatt is an electrical engineer and attorney in New York City who manages his private practice focusing on intellectual property law. He enjoys the outdoors, writing, and assisting high-tech startups and not-for-profits in his spare time. He also serves on the Board of the Foundation for Glacier and Environmental Research and has been a member since 1999. On his desk, he is reading “Why We Disagree about Climate Change” by Mike Hulme and “The Honest Broker” by Roger A. Pielke Jr.

Roy Peer is an architect turned entrepreneur. After working for award-winning architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in New York City, he went on to start a virtual reality company, which later sold to a notable Hollywood director in 2018. Peer is the founder of PeerBasics, a data-driven products company that analyzes e-commerce sales data to drive its product launch decisions in multiple categories with multiple factory partners in Asia. Peer is the author of Simulation Arcade, a sci-fi novel that paints a possible future world when AI and brain chips are commonplace and details the way humanity meets its AI cocoon moment, and how to stop it.

Steven W Sorensen is the director, corporate finance at droppGroup / droppLabs, a web3 video & mixed reality shopatainment marketplace, co-founder of Fotin Media, and a board director of RocketStar, a small satellite launch company. Steven calls NYC home, lived in China for 7 years, and has an MA and M.Phil in English from The University of Hong Kong. He likes jazz piano and good whiskey.

Quotes:

The biggest shift in observance standpoint
[01:29]
Over the minimum number of years, we've seen great fluctuations, but also a tendency downwards that as the glaciers continue to melt, waste away, much more so than their long-term measurements. And so I wouldn't say warming, but it is very concerning.

[03:15]
In the last few years, the amount of accumulation has been much less. So we see a significant reduction in the quantity of ice retained on these glacier fields. And it provides a direction to what we should be concerned about.
Juneau icefield versus other glaciers

[05:35]
The Juneau icefield comprises many glaciers. So in terms of having a long-term study, it's much more valuable for seeing how a large area of a large accumulation zone reflects climate changes.

[08:11]
Variability in weather patterns is seen dramatically on the ice field. It is a temperate glacier. And so you'll see these changes much more rapidly. So it's sensitive to variations and temperature variations to climate.

The focus of the organization
[09:29]
We are a science and education organization. We're not a policy organization. We do not promote any kind of political agenda. We are focused on science and educating our young students who might become leaders in the scientific community.

[10:06]
We will take high school and college graduate students up on the ice field, just a few high school students, because it's a very rigorous environment. And we'll bring professional researchers up to do some of their projects.

[11:00]
And initially, the program was focused on just glaciers, but other sciences came up to study the trees or the glycans. And these are all related to understanding the overall climate because they are affected by variation.

Estimated ages of the different parts of the ice field
[12:09]
And having 20 years of practical experience, I've learned about some of these things, but we do ice core measurements, but typically these mountain glaciers are refreshed, so to speak. That is, the deep, deep ice will flow down to the valley.

[16:23]
We do science by observing ourselves throughout nature, seeing what's out there, seeing what's happening in nature, observing, making measurements, and recording those measurements. And then we do a little bit of book learning and understanding what we're doing.
Most important work for Douglas

[16:40]
We have seen major temperature changes over time, with the measurements of carbon dioxide that have been measured and a correlation of physical connection and scientific physical connection with the co2 as potentially creating warming to the greenhouse effect. And then there's a correlation that confirms some of our theories of understanding this greenhouse theory. So I think it is very important

[18:36]
So for myself, it's important to continue the good science to have a program that is apolitical and to maintain trust and faith in our observations and the science we produce.
Bad Science

[18:56]
Science has a way of measuring things that can't necessarily be to be fiddled with, but sometimes, we present the information in a way that we like to see it. Again, it's an observation. And the observed results are seen through a lens that is sometimes our own.
Bias in funding organizations

[20:27]
Other organizations and, Frankly, the oil industry will fund other such studies that say, Hey, we need to give you a different perspective. I think if you have a good peer review system, you're able to take that research and vet it across the board with neutrality because you are looking at the scientific process and the scientific process, if you have the data, and you can see the data, it will provide a result, a conclusion. And that data may either support that conclusion strongly or weakly.
Accessible data to all people in the world

[25:29]
We have our young students. We go through the basics of the physics of the science, and when we do that, it gives the student an understanding of how that information is collected. And so perhaps, later on in life, when they get to college or graduate school, they see, or they can build upon that

[28:02]
Because at the end of the day, we're right now, we're providing science, and we're providing information for policymakers. And we'd like to garner an amount of trust that we're doing this according to a scientific process that can be used and intelligent decisions made based on that information.

Equal distribution of data
[30:08]
If you have a group of scientists in a room talking about this, I think if they had the same data, and they're sitting down with the same data, let's say you have data from third parties provided in a binder on all these different subject matters, and you went through that binder of data, I think on average, better than average, they would come to a conclusion for what that data represents.

[35:35]
One of the greatest benefits, and one of the things in terms of how we are so successful, at least in this country, is that even though we don't make changes quickly, we make changes slowly. But they're always in a positive direction. We maintain a fairly even keel in our policy.

Mentions:
● https://juneauicefield.org/
● Company website: http://wyattip.com/
● Keywords: #Glaciers #ScientificResearch #Climatechange #Environment #Science #ScienceEducation #Organization

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