Climate Geroscience: The Case for “Wisdom-Inquiry” Science

Why should, and how can, the fields of climate science and geroscience (which studies the biology of aging) facilitate the cross-disciplinary collaboration needed to ensure that human and planetary health are both promoted in the future of an older, and warmer, world? Appealing to the ideal of “wisdom-oriented” science (Maxwell 1984), where scientists consider themselves to be artisans working for the public good, a number of the real-world epistemic constrains on the scientific enterprise are identified. These include communicative frames that stoke intergenerational conflict (rather than solidarity) and treat the ends of planetary and human health as independent “sacred values”(Tetlock 2003) rather than as interdependent ends. To foster “climate geroscience”— the field of knowledge and translational science at the intersection of climate science and geroscience— researchers in both fields are encouraged to think of novel ways they could make researchers from the other field “conversationally” present when framing the aspirations of their respective fields, applying for grant funding, and designing their conferences and managing their scientific journals.