Roop Singh ’14: Translating the science of climate change

How do you choose which issues to highlight in the podcast?

I think we try to highlight issues that are underappreciated. We haven’t done an episode on flooding, for example, because flooding already gets a lot of attention. Whereas extreme temperature is not as visual: You can only understand the impacts of heat if you read into the statistics after a disaster has ended. And when you do, you realize that hundreds of thousands of people die during heat waves – in fact, the number of people who die during heat waves is much larger than the number who die in floods. I’m trying to shine a light on issues that people don’t realize are having such a big impact.

Were there any courses or teachers at CALS who were especially impactful for you?

My first meteorology class with Mark Wysocki, senior lecturer in earth and atmospheric sciences, was very impactful, and he became my advisor. He was this larger-than-life person who made meteorology so accessible, and he helped us see that the science itself was fascinating and that it also has an impact on people’s lives. And that was exactly what I was looking for. I grew up in New York City, but my parents are from India – my dad was a farmer there – and climate has a huge impact on farming. My family roots in agriculture and my interest in science all came together when I got to Cornell. I joined Alpha Zeta, the agriculture honor fraternity. One of the biggest things I learned at Cornell is how to communicate science in a way that’s clear to other people, while being honest about what you know and what you don’t know. That’s something I work on every day: how to communicate and engage with people to help them understand climate change and how it affects them.