With skeptics and believers in the audience, Marion resident Dr. Jennifer Francis gave a presentation on climate change at the Wareham Free Library on Jan 18.  The talk focused on how climate change impacts weather, and it drew a healthy discussion from the audience.

“This group had more questions than normal I would say. It was a really engaged group,” said Francis. “I hope everyone got something out of it.”

Francis said these presentations are important because experts can make a complex but important subject accessible.

“It reaches people more directly and more personally because I’m from the area,” Francis said. “It also gives them an opportunity to ask questions, which they would not be able to do if they just read it.”

As Francis said, the audience had many questions. Wareham resident Tom McShea was among the skeptics, and raised numerous questions.
“From my point of view, as a geologist, I look at four and a half billion years. This earth has been covered with ice and it’s been hot as can be,” McShea said. “I just wanted to hear the other side. The debate is there.”

Francis embraced skeptics being in the audience.

“I’m glad he was here,” said Francis. “You can always talk to the choir, but that doesn’t get you very far. I see many flavors of skeptics. I see people who are not convinced… Those who come from a different perspective… and then there are the misleaders.”

Kevin Bartsch of the Wareham Land Trust said that there were many inquisitive questions posed.

“We try to do a presentation like this every month,” Bartsch said. “We try to pick topics that would be interesting to the community, and find an appropriate speaker.”

Francis gave a similar speech at the Sippican Women’s club in 2012. There, Wareham resident Richard Wheeler reached out to Francis to do a presentation in Wareham.

Francis became interested in her field of study while growing up in Marion, sailing and soaking up her father’s interest in weather.

“When I was little, if there was anything interesting like a big storm… We’d go and see the boats breaking loose in the harbor,” said Francis. “I just started having an early fascination with weather and sailing.”

After figuring out that dentistry – her father’s profession – was not for her, she rekindled her love of weather during a five-year sailing expedition, which took her and her husband around the world.

From there, Francis went back to college for meteorology, later “got hooked on research,” and earned a doctorate degree.

“Caring about the natural world is the fundamental baseline for caring about” climate change, she said. “I think the conversation is really starting to change now.”