Mapping Global Change

There’s a young field at the interface of science and mathematics called spatial statistics. It’s so new that its first international conference is taking place next month in the Netherlands. It’s an important line of work, with the potential to help clarify everything from the risk of disease outbreaks to the rate of warming across the vast and sparsely monitored Antarctic continent. I hope…that tussles at the edges of understanding, where data are scant or uncertainty is high, don’t distract the public too much from the basics of climate science, which are boringly undisputed yet still speak of a rising risk that sorely needs addressing.