“Every time I give a talk, I get a standing ovation,” said Running from his home in the Rattlesnake recently. “Sometimes I get a standing ovation before I even say a word. That's pretty cool.”
A year ago in October, former Vice President Al Gore shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - a group of hundreds of scientists, including Running - for bringing an ever-growing awareness to global climate change.
Audiences may show increased enthusiasm for what Running has to say, but that doesn't apply to his comedic side. He quickly realized he had to curb the jokes.
“People took me more seriously,” he said. “It wasn't as easy to goof around, which is part of why people like the way I present material.”
Another challenge occurred last January.
A school superintendent in Choteau, on Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, canceled a talk Running was to deliver to a group of high school students because of pressure from school board members who had received complaints from parents in the community. Local and national media latched onto the story: a Nobel Prize laureate silenced in his own state.
“I heard from friends all over the world on that one,” Running recalls.
Late-night talk-show host David Letterman, who owns a ranch outside Choteau, read the story in the New York Times. As a way to make amends for the way Choteau had treated Running, Letterman invited him to his ranch along with several local conservation groups.
The group of 30 to 40 people enjoyed a three-hour horseback ride on the ranch, then had dinner. Running was the main event, delivering a talk on climate change.
“It's been quite a year when I get to thinking about it,” he said.
Running narrowed his research on global climate change throughout the year. When the IPCC report was first released in 2007, Running would give an overview of global warming. When that information became more common knowledge, Running began focusing more exclusively on the northern Rocky Mountains and regional trends.
Temperatures are not the biggest problem here, he said. Ecosystem stresses and water supply are.
In the next year, Running hopes to slightly change the scope of his research again. He's begun to take an interest in how socioeconomic issues such as population and economic growth affect climate change. That's in part because of invitations he's received to speak to groups such as Planned Parenthood.
Running was puzzled by the invitation at first, but soon realized that population growth affects the quantity of emissions released into the atmosphere.
He's also gearing up to push the idea of a no-growth economy - in terms of consumption. With the current recession the nation is facing, he said, maybe it'll cause people to return to a lifestyle “that maybe we never should have left.”
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cj monaco wrote on Dec 28, 2008 7:33 AM:
" With so much growing evidence against man-made global warming and an increasing number of renowned scientists coming out of the closet to repudiate it, will Gore give back the Nobel? Man-made global warming is the biggest myth perpetuated upon 21st Century society. Congratulations to the Choteau school board. "
allan wrote on Dec 28, 2008 8:20 AM:
" People in Choteau are idiots for not letting there children here this intelligent man speak. "
Bob wrote on Dec 28, 2008 12:04 PM:
" Steve Running may be a very talented professor/speaker I don't know because I have never taken a class from him or heard him speak. That being said I hope he will use his talent to do something I can't get anyone else to do. I am asking Steve to produce the scientific study (published, peer reviewed and reproducable) that conclusively shows that man is responsible for catastroghic global warming. "
Marc Reeves wrote on Dec 28, 2008 2:32 PM:
" "He's also gearing up to push the idea of a no-growth economy"...my god this is such a dangerous idea. Does this man have any idea how many people throughout this world starve to death every year because they are in a no-growth economy?
Since when does condeming millions of people to starvation qualify for a nobel peace prize? "
Since when does condeming millions of people to starvation qualify for a nobel peace prize? "
Marc Reeves wrote on Dec 28, 2008 7:18 AM:
In the future this poor man will look back at all the good he could have done yet wasted his talents futhering Al Gore's polticial goals.
I've asked questions of Dr. Running challenging the conclutions being drawn from the scientific "proof" of global warming, and you can see his is increadibly uncomfortable having to defend his postions. I guess nobody like to hear that the king has no clothes! "