The One Lesson from Greta Thunberg

Environmental & Science Eduction
STEM
Earth Science
Geology
Earth Systems
Nature of Science
Climate Change
Edward Hessler

What is "the one science lesson every American adult can learn from Greta Thunberg"?

Ethan Siegal, writing for Forbes, provides the important answer.

What Greta Thunberg has to teach us, that most people (perhaps even most scientists) fail to grasp, is that the scientific expertise you learn in the process of becoming a scientist is what enables you to make informed judgments about the merits of various scientific assertions. And, if you care about achieving the most desirable outcome, you must accept the best science the world has to offer — the scientific consensus on an issue, where one exists — or you don't deserve a seat at the table.

The essay is a short course on the nature of science and includes a digression on the meaning of consensus science from relativity to biological evolution to vaccination and fluoridation.  In the end, Siegal writes "the science (of global climate change) has been unambiguous since the late 1980s: the Earth is warming, humans are the cause, and the only way to combat this is through large-scale action taken by our world's governments."

Siegal expands on the answer so I strongly recommend you read it. The supporting material, graphs and illustrations, are very nicely used.

Siegal began his career as a theoretical physicist but turned to writing about science for a number of outlets. In addition he professes at colleges and universities. He is a regular contributor at Forbes (Starts with a Bang) where he serves a senior writer on science.