Climate Science Gets a Seat in Congress with Eric Sorensen

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  For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman.

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  Representative Eric Sorensen of Illinois spent 22 years forecasting the weather on television before winning his congressional seat in 2022.

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  He now finds himself defending scientific agencies from unprecedented attacks at a time when climate change is pushing weather patterns into uncharted territory.

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  Today we're talking to Eric about how his scientific background shapes his approach to politics,

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  what he'd change about the country's approach to catastrophic weather events,

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  and why he thinks more scientists should consider running for office.

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  Thanks so much for coming on to chat with us today.

• 00:57

  Oh, it's great to be with you.

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  I'd love to start with a little bit about your background as a meteorologist.

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  How did you get interested in the field and what was your career like?

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  Yeah, I grew up in Rockford, Illinois, and I grew up afraid of storms.

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  tornadoes, right?

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  And I just had this intense reaction every time they occurred.

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  And I wanted to learn more.

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  I'll never forget.

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  I thought it was a punishment when my mom and dad took me to the library.

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  They were like, all right, we need to get Eric to learn more about weather, right?

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  And so I'm just like, as I started learning about it, I was hooked on it as a kid.

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  And so all I wanted to be.

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  was the meteorologist on TV.

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