Overall，belief in climate change has declined in the American public from roughly 75 percent to 55 percent between 2008 and 2011，with a recent rebound to 62 percent in the fall of 2011，the Brookings Institution survey finds．One noted reason for the rebound was personal experiences with warmer fall and winter temperatures．
Though this kind of weather disruption is what climate scientists predict，they hesitate to place too much emphasis on one or two unusual seasons as a trend that changes public opinion．If next winter is more normal，the public may get the wrong impression about the dangers of climate change．Better for science to be more convincing．
But there’s the rub．The American public is generally illiterate when it comes to science． And when American scientists complain about public illiteracy and lethargy on the vitally important subject of climate change，they also have themselves to blame．
Generally，those who know the most about climate--and other important scientific fields—are locked up in their university ivory towers and conference rooms，speaking a language only they can understand．And they speak mostly to each other，not to the general public，policymakers，or business people--not to those who can actually make things happen．
This is dangerous．We live in an age when scientific issues permeate our social， economic．and political culture．People must be educated about science and the scientific Drocess if we are to make rational and informed decisions that affect our future．But instead，the relative absence of academics and academic scholarship in the public discourse creates a vacuum into which uninformed．wrong，and downright destructive viewpoints get voiced and take hold．
Here’s a typical example．After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010，conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh argued that“The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone．．．”In fact，the spill created extensive damage to wide ranging marine habitats as well as the Gulf Coast’s fishing and tourism industries．Long-term impacts are still unclear as scientists continue to monitor underwater plumes of dissolved oil that lie along the bottom．
The fact is that today’s scientists are indeed lost to the academy．The failure begins with training in doctoral programs and continues through professional development where the constant immersion in academic seminars and journals serves to weaken scientists’literacy in the language of public，economic，and political discourse．Scientists limit involvement insuch“outside activities”because tenure and promotion are based primarily on publication in top—tier academic journals．
In mv view．few contemporary issues warrant critical analysis by problem—focused researchers more than environmental sustainability，and particularly climate change． Universities need to train emerging and seasoned scholars in the skills of communicating science to the public and policy makers．We need to develop a new generation of scholars for whom the role of public intellectual is not an anachronism．Without such changes，the climate change debate devolves into a“logic schism”where the ideological extremesdominate the conversation and the space for solutions disappears into a rhetorical shouting match．
The recent rebound in American’s belief in climate change is_______．
A．But scientists are still working to improve on that，and among them is social psychologist Aldert Vrij of the University of Portsmouth in England．Vrij has been using akey insight from his field to improve interrogation methods．In short，the truth
B．When Vrij and his colleagues asked volunteers what their offices looked like．after instructing half to tell the truth about their occupations and half to lie，both truth tellersand liars gave the same amount of detail in their verbal responses．But whe
C．All these tricks may seem like overkill when we think about the fictional detectives weknow，including Holmes Sherlock，who seem able to ferret out every falsehood theyhear without using any strategies other than their intuition．But in real life，such p
D．And in fact，that is just what happens in the lab：Vrij ran an experiment in which half the liars and truth tellers were instructed to recall their stories in reverse order．When observers later looked at videotapes of the complete interviews，they corr
E．Psychological scientists are fascinated by keen lie spotter．Detecting lies and liars isessential to effective policing and prosecution of criminals，but it is maddeninglydifficult．Most of us can correctly spot barely more than half of all lies and tr
F．Another strategy that could be surprisingly effective is to ask suspects to draw a picture． Putting pencil to paper forces people to give spatial information-something that most liars have not prepared for as part of planning t
G．Here are a few strategies that Vrij and his colleagues have been testing in the laboratory． One intriguing strategy is to demand that suspects tell their stories in reverse．Narrating backward increases cognitive load because it
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