As discussions drag on over what to do about our warming climate, let’s step back to reconsider the battlefield of rhetoric and discord. And how and whether it eventually can lead to harmony.

Political scientist and climate change policy expert David G. Victor, of the University of California at San Diego, encourages changing labels and strategies in ways that recognize a more complex political landscape. No more “climate denialist” name-calling, he urges.

Co-author of the recently published mitigation report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Victor will be the featured guest on The Yale Forum’s next 30onClimate webcast — May 15 at 11:30 am PDT (2:30 pm EDT).

30onClimate moderator Bruce Lieberman will interview Professor Victor about the complicated rhetorical landscape of climate change, and importantly, what the latest report from the IPCC has to say about where the globe’s climate is headed and what we can do about it.

Scrap the ‘denialists’ name-calling, Victor urges.

David G. Victor is a professor of international relations and director of the UC San Diego’s Laboratory on International Law and Regulation. His research focuses on highly regulated industries and how regulation affects the operation of major energy markets. He is author of Global Warming Gridlock, which explains why the world hasn’t made much diplomatic progress on the problem of climate change. Victor has published 200 articles and books in venues that include Nature, Science, International Organization, The New York Times, Finance Times, Climatic Change, and the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. He is a member of the advisory council for Nature Climate Change, a board member of the journal Climatic Change, and a member of the board of the Electric Power Research Institute.

Bruce Lieberman, an independent science journalist who has reported on climate change for more than a decade, is a regular contributor to The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media.