Amy Clement, professor at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, loves the ocean. We are mentioning this because her research may seem to suggest otherwise: Amy has proposed bold and controversial ideas about how the role of the ocean in controlling several modes of variability of the climate system may be smaller than most climate scientists had believed.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon relies heavily on the coupling of the atmosphere to the ocean? The sea surface temperature patterns of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) are the result of ocean heat transport? Maybe not, argues Amy. She found that climate models with “deactivated” oceans can produce many aspects of these phenomena with atmospheric forcing alone.

As remarkable as these findings is the way Amy has never been afraid of discussing them with scientists who held strongly opposing views, even when she was a grad student and was much less experienced than her critics. For Amy, science is about leaving your ego at home and focus on the ideas, with openness and curiosity, and a shared goal of advancing our understanding of the earth system.

“As scientists, when someone comes along and says, well let’s look at it differently. Isn’t that fun? If you read the literature, there’s a lot of confirmation bias, to be honest, and less of people saying, ‘how can this idea be wrong?’ And to me, that’s really disappointing.”

As much as she enjoys doing research for the pleasure of figuring things out, she has also been led into climate science by her social consciousness, and in this interview you’ll hear her talk about her work on climate adaptation with a range of groups in Miami, and why she started doing this after waking up the morning after the Presidential election of 2016. Also, she and Adam discuss whether science is the right career for someone who wants to make a difference on climate.

The interview with Amy Clement was recorded in July 2019. Image credit: https://www.theinvadingsea.com/