'March For Science' To Take Place Saturday In Downtown San Diego

>>> I am Maureen Cavanaugh. It is Friday, April 13. Our top story, downtown San Diego will be filled with scientist, researchers, teachers and supporters tomorrow morning. The March for science takes place or a second year. Last year, 15,000 people took part in San Diego, hundreds of thousands in cities around the world. March organizers say the aim is to celebrate science and highlight its importance in our lives. Join me as one of the participants in tomorrow's March for science, Jeff Severinghaus. He is Professor of geosciences at the geosciences research division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography . Jeff, welcome to the program. >> Thank you for having me. >> Why are you getting involved in the March? >> Science has been disregarded lately by our government and that is a troubling thing. We are marching to say loud and clear that people will have better lives if they actually pay attention to what science says. That is why we have clean drinking water, ways to deal with infectious disease outbreaks, the list goes on and on. It is very very troubling when the government starts to disregard scientific advice. -- And even tells lies about scientific facts. >> Can you give an example of how you can see science disregarded? >> A good example is that the president of this present administration states publicly that global warming is a hoax. That is obviously a lie. Without speculating about the motivations for the lie, it is absolutely incumbent upon us all as citizens to speak out and say no, you cannot tell lies about scientific facts. We know the earth is not flat, we know that the earth is round. No, we're not going to have a diversity of opinions when it comes to fact. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but everyone is not entitled to their own facts. >> Organizers say the march is not -- apparently, there is a political undertone. How much would you say politics has to do with the March? >> It is certainly nonpartisan in some respects, and that people all over the spectrum are extremely troubled by departure from truth and fact. It goes right to the core of what it means to be a democracy. -- And to live in an age of so-called enlightenment and reason. [Laughter] it is fundamental. This is an attack on tradition -- traditions that go back hundreds of years, if not back to the ancient Greeks. This is much different -- deeper than politics. >> Touching on your line of research, it involves measuring the temperature of the ocean thousands of years ago. What can it tell us about the warming we are experiencing today? >> It tells us the ocean plays a huge role in climate. It shows that something like 93% of extra heat that is being created by global warming is actually being soaked up by the ocean. The ocean is doing us a huge favor by delaying the onset of the warming that we would otherwise see. >> Is your sense that the American public is on your side so to speak and it is just the powers that be that are the problem about embracing science and scientific facts or is there a problem with the public's attitude toward science. --? >> [Bells ringing] and surveys show 70% of Americans believe that global warming is a real problem and we need to do something about it. I would not say that it is a big problem with most of the public. >> What will you be telling the audience tomorrow, now that you will be speaking? >> I want to draw attention to the uniquely difficult nature of this problem. When you burn fossil fuels, they stay in the atmosphere for about 100 years in the ocean itself takes another hundred years to warm-up. That means, a multiple century response to a causative action taken today. I drive down to the studio here to speak to you, I am admitting a pound of say carbon or two and that pound of carbon is a commitment to two centuries of warming. It is a serious long-term commitment and it is a devilish problem for the human brain to grapple with because we did not evolve from people who were optimal risk managers, we evolved from people who got lucky and survived and pass their genes on in large part because of luck. It means we are basically optimized to take advantage of lucky things. But not the things that will -- long-term planning or seeing the future, making sacrifices now. -- So that people 100 years from now can have a decent world to live in. >> The March for science will take place tomorrow at 10 AM in downtown San Diego, starting at waterfront Park and I have been speaking with Jeff Severinghaus, professor of geosciences at the geosciences research division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography . Thank you. >> Thank you, Maureen.