Greg Craven is an American

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

science teacher and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

author. The creator of a 2007

viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

, he is the author of the 2009 book ''What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate''.

Early life and education

Craven grew up in

Silverton, Oregon Silverton is a city in Marion County, Oregon, United States. The city is situated along the 45th parallel about northeast of Salem, in the eastern margins of the broad alluvial plain of the Willamette Valley. The city is named after Silver Cre ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree from the

University of Puget Sound The University of Puget Sound (UPS or Puget Sound) is a private university in Tacoma, Washington. The university draws approximately 2,600 students from 44 states and 16 countries. It offers 1,200 courses each year in more than 50 traditional an ...

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...

, studying Asian studies and computer science.

Career

After graduating from college, Craven worked as a software engineer, traveled in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, and took graduate science courses at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. In 2007, when he was a science teacher at Central High School in

Independence, Oregon Independence is a city in Polk County, Oregon, United States, on the west bank of the Willamette River along Oregon Route 51, and east of nearby Monmouth. It is part of the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thirty square blocks of the oldest ...

, Craven posted the nine and one-half minute ''The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See'' on

. The video presented a simplified version of risk management using a 2x2 grid to sketch out possible scenarios based on: a) whether we choose to take action or not, and b) whether global warming turns out to be a threat or not. Using the grid, Craven concluded that taking action to combat climate change was the better choice, given the relative risks. In the first six months online it garnered four million hits, and prompted Craven to spend six weeks creating 44 follow up videos totaling over seven hours detailing specifics of risk management applied to climate change. Craven's conclusion was that "the risk of not acting far outweighs the risk of acting." Craven was the focus of some media attention, was named "Featured Teacher" by ''

WIRED Science ''Wired Science'' was a weekly television program that covered modern scientific and technological topics. In January 2007 PBS aired pilot episodes for three different science programs, including ''Wired Science''. Using Nielsen ratings, CPB-sp ...

'', and was opposed by climate change denialists. In 2009, Craven published the book ''What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate''. At the annual Fall Meeting of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's a ...

(AGU) in 2010, Craven delivered a speech (and subsequent comments during a panel discussion) exhorting the climate science community to become personally involved in the public debate over climate change. Craven's comments caused some negative attention in denialist climate blogs, which argued that Craven was "the face of the 'New AGU.'" This prompted Craven to publish a clarification taking personal responsibility and emphasizing that his remarks were in no way associated with the AGU organization or its official view.Mea Mega Culpa: an Open Letter from Greg Craven re: Dec. 15th speech at AGU
accessed December 18, 2010

Publications

* ''What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate'', Perigee Trade, 2009;

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craven, Greg People from Silverton, Oregon University of Puget Sound alumni Schoolteachers from Oregon American climate activists Writers from Oregon American non-fiction environmental writers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Independence, Oregon 21st-century American educators