Richard Somerville is a climate scientist and the author of The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change, a new editon of which was published in 2008 by the American Meteorological Society.

"Perhaps the most important function of climate science on an issue of broad interest like global warming is to help educate the public and to provide useful input into the policy process. Governments, corporations, and individuals should listen to and learn from the science, just as intelligent people listen to their physicians when their health is in question. Good science input can inform wise policymaking. The role of scientists is to help assess the science and present it in an intelligible way that is policy relevant."