What Does it Mean to be a Scientist?
Being a scientist is all about having a particular interest in the way our planet works, especially when it comes to the Polar Regions. It's about being interested in the oceans, in the role of the icecaps and in the part played by the atmosphere in the Polar Regions. It's also about how all these elements relate to questions regarding climate change.
Climate change is a very unique issue, because it affects the entire planet. Being a scientist - wherever you might be on the planet - is about trying to understand and trying to come up with better ways of understanding. As a scientist, you need to be a dreamer, be able to "think outside the box" and have lots of imagination. You need to dare try something new in whatever scientific field you are following. It is a very exciting job.
A little like an explorer out there in the great unknown, you have to explore the Earth and try to understand what makes it tick. And, in order to do that, some scientists have to go out on the field. Inside the warm laboratories, other scientists use computers to analyse the results of the research conducted outside. They produce climate models such as the much talked about Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of scientists trying to tell us what will happen to our climate 50 or 100 years from now.
We really do need scientists because, without them, it would not be possible for politicians and decision-makers to say, "Well, in the next couple of years, we shall promote this type of energy..." or "we absolutely must tackle this problem..." and so on. It really is important to understand that the fundamental scientific issues and the type of science going on in the Polar Regions have a very practical role in the destiny and fate of future generations 20 to 30 years from now.
