Oregon Public Broadcasting

Ever since Lollapalooza merged rock stars and social causes in the 1990’s, the concept has spread to other issues and venues.  Now a road show called Polar-Palooza presents climate change researchers as rock stars.

The multi-media science extravaganza aims to make people care about rapid changes in the polar regions wrought by climate change.

Curiously, its only Northwest stop on a year-long national tour is in Boise.  Correspondent Tom Banse reports.

It’s bound to be unlike any science lecture you’ve seen before.  A man dressed as a penguin chases a veteran bird biologist off the stage.  Between introductions, a rap musician provides a musical interlude.

Arctic and Antarctic researchers narrate video segments standing in front of a screen two stories tall. 

Geoff Haines-Stiles hopes you grasp the rapid rate of change at the poles, so then you’ll take the whole issue of climate change more seriously.

Haines-Stiles is the behind-the-scenes organizer and producer of Polar-Palooza.

Geoff Haines-Stiles: “It’s taking the old Las Vegas slogan (and turning it on its head) -- what happens at the poles doesn’t stay at the poles.  The changing ice sheets affect weather and climate around the planet, on the coasts or in the heartland."

What Haines-Stiles pulled together bears some resemblance to former-vice president Al Gore’s global warming slideshow and movie.  But Polar Palooza has more people on stage. 

And they’re the actual researchers who drill the ice cores or sift the geologic record.  These are the people who find the evidence of climate change.

Arctic bird researcher George Divoky of Seattle says he has more credibility describing trends he’s seen with his own eyes.

George Divoky: “I think it is a pulling away from the political arena and saying these are the facts.  And I didn’t lose a presidential race eight years ago.”

The traveling science circus came to Boise at the invitation of the Discovery Center of Idaho.  This is its only stop in the Northwest. Janine Boire directs the science center in Boise.

Janine Boire: “I think it is probably one of the more challenging cities that the scientists have been to, in terms of: ‘Is this really happening?’ But I think it sets the standard for how science outreach should be done.”

One member of the audience is Boise State University geophysicist Hans-Peter Marshall.  He says shows like this take science beyond the ivory towers, to the people who in the end pay for the research.

Hans-Peter Marshall: “Most of the major funding organizations -- NASA and the National Science Foundation -- require a significant outreach component to most projects.”

Marshall is not part of the Polar Palooza road show, but gets his funding from the same sources, NASA and NSF.  He has no plans to dress in a penguin suit, but does think interactive public lectures are in his future too.

Online:

Polar-Palooza