Meet Alison Brown, President and CEO
What does "bold science" mean to you?
“Bold Science” means those of us who work at the science museum do not hesitate to talk about issues and findings, even if they make us uncomfortable, as long as sound and ethical science backs them. It means that everyone at the museum sees their role as an advocate to increase the voices of our scientists and experts to improve lives. Sometimes that means we will take stances that make parts of our public angry, but we must do so as our role is to support the experts and provide our community sound advice.
How does your role at the Science Museum play a part in combating climate change?
We know that our society is worried about topics like climate change, violent disruption in the world, and equity. I have to work together with our community to create experiences that explore these topics in engaging ways that don’t rely solely on a physical space, but also through conversation, collaboration, and innovation. Together, we can show people that they can become scientists, and they use science every day to address critical issues, such as climate change and the inequities in our society.
What gives you hope in the fight against climate change?
The world will be here no matter what we do to it. The question is, what species do we take along with humans if we don’t stop the path we are currently headed on?
Maybe a second question could be “what is the state of the world we would leave behind?” Those don’t sound like very hopeful comments. From a geological perspective, the world will continue, and life will remain on it. The question we wrestle with is will we, the human species, be here?
What gives me hope are the many people working to fix the problem we created. People are inventive and creative, and we need to act quickly. Those who don’t believe in climate change are afraid or have other influences driving their behaviors, yet they are a minority. Unfortunately, a small minority can wield a disproportionate amount of power. That’s our biggest challenge.
What are the biggest opportunities for addressing climate change?
The biggest opportunity is for the majority of the people to take action together, to make changes in their lifestyles, and to demand actions through their votes. To create the scale of change we need, we will have to change how human-designed systems operate, which will require legislative changes in transportation, food, housing, energy, and other systems. Scientists already know what changes we need to make.