Kate Marvel on Fear, Wonder, and Leaving NASA

Climate scientist Kate Marvel made headlines this year when she publicly resigned from NASA, drawing coverage from Bloomberg to The New York Times. Marvel says her resignation wasn’t newsworthy on its own. What made it notable is that she was one of more than 10,000 Ph.D. scientists to leave the federal government during President Trump’s second term, part of what she calls a “mass nerd exodus.” 

She is now senior climate scientist at Project Drawdown and author of “Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet.” Marvel argues that scientists need to stop hiding their feelings behind the data. 

“When we pretend we don’t have emotions, that’s not making us more credible, because that’s lying,” she says. “You can feel a whole range of human emotions and still get the numbers right.”

Guests: 

Kate Marvel, Senior climate scientist, Project Drawdown; author, “Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet”

Michael McPhaden, Senior oceanographer, University of Washington

For show notes, transcripts, and related links, visit ClimateOne.org.

Highlights:

00:00:00 Intro

00:02:24 Kate Marvel on if leaving NASA was newsworthy 

00:08:05 Kate Marvel on why science should be publicly funded 

00:12:18 Kate Marvel on “emergency break” solution