Climate scientist pinpoints what exactly is lacking in the scientific method

Dr. Mika Tosca, 36, a climate scientist and assistant professor at the School Art Institute of Chicago, believes a certain step, if not process, is missing from the scientific method: a lack of human engagement. Of all subjects and their relation to science, art is what she accredits to allowing her to explore ways to better produce scientific knowledge.

"It's [the scientific method] a lot of solo scientific work, whereas artists and designers start a lot of projects by talking to people," Tosca told AccuWeather in an interview. Her theory is if scientists could adopt this process and think about the ways in which designers and artists create, perhaps scientists could find solutions to long-enduring questions.

For Tosca, one of those questions is how to address climate change.

The answer, she theorizes, may intersect with other movements for change.

"I think that if we are ever going to have a better world, for example, if we're going to solve climate change, we can't really do that on its own," Tosca said. "It needs to be accompanied by, in my opinion, just sort of general liberation for queer people and for POC, and etc."

Dr. Mika Tosca, a climate scientist and assistant professor at the School Art Institute of Chicago, tells AccuWeather how meteorology intersects with social movements.

As biases around marginalized groups persist across communities, factors from access to university-level education to not having representation or visibility in the field to a potential employer's own biases all play a role in the diversity of the people coming to the table in the STEM field.

"You lose people, and maybe these are really brilliant minds that you're losing," Tosca said, adding that because of that, "The science is suffering."

The attrition of women or people of color in the sciences has long been an issue in STEM fields, and Tosca added that the same is probably true for LGBTQIA+ folks, particularly the transgender members of the community.

Like the flaw in the scientific method, she emphasized that while science is viewed as an objective search for the truth, it's not as unbiased as it's made out to be.

"If I talk about being a trans[gender] scientist or, you know, someone talks about being a Black meteorologist or a woman, we're often told you can leave your identity aside, but it's not really true because the default identity for science has been white men."

Dr. Mika Tosca, a climate scientist and assistant professor at the School Art Institute of Chicago, giving a presentation. (Mika Tosca)

The solution she proposes is not to continue erasing the identity of the scientists and researchers involved across STEM fields, but to instead embrace and acknowledge them, increasing visibility.

"Oftentimes, we think of science as being unbiased and objective and devoid of identity, but I'm here to talk about how that's not really true and never has been true," Tosca said. "I think we should bring our full selves to the job, even if it seems like two different things, like being trans and also studying the weather."

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For atmospheric physicist Ryder Fox, 41, bringing their full self to the job includes bringing forward their experiences in academia as a genderqueer person and working toward improving the experiences of the underserved people of STEM who follow.

Atmospheric physicist Ryder Fox, 41, a PhD student at the University of Miami. (Ryder Fox)

Fox themself did not attempt to apply to universities until they were in their mid-30s, having not only grown up in a fundamentalist household that denied science and restricted education but also lacked financial access to university-level education after being kicked out by their parents as a teen.

"Navigating familial rejection, houselessness, poverty and delayed educations is very common for trans people, and our education infrastructure should adapt to include our experiences, if retention is truly a goal," Fox told AccuWeather.

Ryder Fox and their poster for the education symposium at the AMS conference, 2018, on retaining LGBTQ+ students and early career professionals in STEM. (Ryder Fox)

In the time between being kicked out and starting college, Fox found their first full-time job at 18 years old working as a news videographer, during which they covered multiple severe weather events. From hurricanes like Ivan (2004), Katrina (2005) and Wilma (2005) to notable tornado outbreaks like the ones on Jan. 17 to Jan. 21, 1999, in northeastern Arkansas and the Nov. 10, 2002, tornado in Cullman County, Alabama, Fox found themselves in the thick of it more often than not.

"I shot a lot of severe weather. I was out in blizzards and hurricanes and tornadoes, floods, whatever, I was in them all the time, and so I think I had a love for, as well as a deep respect, for severe weather," Fox said. "I didn't take my first science class until I was 33 years old, and being able to ask myself 'What have I enjoyed and where might I apply that?' it made sense to put myself back into the science side of severe weather."

Now a PhD student at the University of Miami, Fox is using their visibility to improve the experiences of underserved people in STEM.

Ryder Fox and their MPAS Global Model hurricane research presentation at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in 2017. (Ryder Fox)

"We all have varying levels of barriers that we face, but it's something that, for me, has been exceedingly important and intentional to put myself in as many visible spaces and to mentor as many trans people who are coming up through whatever process, whatever point in their journey as possible so that they don't feel like they're the only ones and that they could not have their dreams, whatever those dreams are," Fox said.

In their efforts to provide the resources that they did not have while entering the field, Fox founded THRIVE Lifeline, a crisis text line staffed by and for people in STEM with marginalized identities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

THRIVE Lifeline (Thriving Harnesses Respect, Inclusion and Vested Empathy) is an international, all volunteer-based organization made up of qualified crisis responders who identify as LGBTQ+ in STEM. They provide free, confidential, life-saving and life-affirming crisis support to people from locations throughout all of North America. (Ryder Fox)

Of the people who help Fox run the crisis text line, they said over 30% identify themselves as trans and are familiar themselves with "how much of a wasteland it is for resources."

"I think humanizing people at the depth of who they are and helping them become their best selves as competently as possible is something that I take so much pride in because I was somebody that didn't have anybody," Fox said. "On the other side, I had to do it all alone and so to not have to see other people do it all on their own is quite a privilege."

Tosca has also taken up the mantle as an openly trans woman in meteorology to make space and improve the field for current and new generations.

"For me, my trans activism is really focusing on bringing my whole identity to my job and making sure that I'm really obnoxiously loud about it all the time so that minds start to change," Tosca said. "Because when minds start to change, everything is better for all people."

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 26, 2017 file photo, people with the Human Rights Campaign hold up "equality flags" during an event organized by Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., in support of transgender members of the military on Capitol Hill in Washington, after President Donald Trump said he wants transgender people barred from serving in the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

One example she gave was becoming involved with a push for academic journals to change their policies, allowing trans people to change their names on old papers that they authored with a name they no longer use. Tosca notes that in speaking with some of the journals, a lot of them hadn't realized the ability for a transgender person to change their name in an article was an issue to address.

Again, Tosca points out that while transgender rights and visibility in general appear to be separate from meteorology, they're still connected.

"For example, if a trans person isn't allowed to change their name on paper, maybe then they get rejected for a job by a transphobic colleague," Tosca said. "And then, therefore, the science suffers, and the world suffers as a result of that. And so I think that they're not these separate issues, that they're actually really linked."

Being called by the wrong name or pronouns is an experience that many transgender folk, including Fox, still experience in the workplace.

"I'm misgendered all of the time, and that's a big thing for so many people who don't feel that they get to be themselves, and if you don't get to be yourself, then the energy that that takes and the constant burden of it takes away from you being able to optimize your capacity as a thinker, as a viewer," Fox said. "When you're humanized at the base levels, you get to focus on your work or on your learning, so that's very big."

FILE - In this June 26, 2015, file photo, a crowd celebrates outside of the Supreme Court in Washington after the court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the U.S. On Friday, Aug. 16, 2019, the Justice Department brief filed telling the Supreme Court that federal law allows firing workers for being transgender. The brief is related to a group of three cases that the high court were set to hear in its term related to LGBTQ discrimination in the workplace. On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Fox also pointed out that being out and visible, while a largely important part to encouraging the presence of transgender people in meteorology, was also not something that a lot of people in the community have the ability to do -- either out of concern for their personal safety or well being or even out of the concern of not being able to complete their degree.

In turn, the activism and visibility of Tosca and Fox have helped younger meteorologists in the transgender community, such as Alex, 27, an atmospheric scientist who works in the research and development side of aviation weather guidance tools.

Alex agreed to speak with AccuWeather under anonymity about their experience in the field of meteorology as a non-binary individual due to not being fully out at work and concerned about prospective employers.

Alex, 28, works in the research and development side of aviation weather guidance tools that warn pilots and other users where there may be a threat of icing. (Alex)

Having identified as non-binary for only a couple of months, Alex is still navigating the waters of their own identity. The few people at work they've come out to have been friends and trusted coworkers, known allies or people within LGBTQ resource groups. For Alex's work environment as a whole, however, they've held off until they can find the right words.

"The people that I haven't come out to, like my boss, I feel kind of bad because she's a good friend and mentor, but I just don't know how to bring it up, and I've chickened out already like two or three times because it's just so out of the blue otherwise to just be like, 'hey, by the way, I'm non-binary and I only just figured this out a few months ago. I'm not actually asking anything of you, I just wanted you to know that,'" Alex said. "Someday, I will say something like that, but I haven't found the nerve to, I guess."

A few weeks after Alex shared this experience, they came out to their boss, who Alex said was "wonderfully supportive."

The visibility of other non-binary coworkers has been reassuring, Alex said, and they even reached out to one of them.

"It was just really nice to connect with someone, and I hadn't really told many coworkers at that point," Alex said. Their coworker shared what their own experience had been like, noting it had been a pretty positive experience, giving Alex the encouragement needed to start telling more people.

"I have recently found out that there are two more people that I know [who] are non-binary," Alex said. "So, it feels less lonely, I guess."

Now, Alex knows of at least three other transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming people in their workplace.

"The thing about trans visibility is that once you start looking, there's an awful lot of us. But I think most people, most cisgender people who have never really thought much about it don't notice us," Alex said. "And I like to say that if you think you don't know any trans people, it's probably just because you haven't been paying attention."

As the call for visibility of LGBTQ people in STEM rings out, it doesn't go unheard.

During the American Geophysical Union of 2019, the last fall meeting the group held in person before the pandemic, Tosca took part in organizing a panel around LGBTQ people in geosciences.

As the planned time approached, more and more people began to trickle into the room until it was packed full of people, all searching for the aspect of human engagement that community builds in the field.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect Alex's name and pronouns, which have changed since the original publishing date.

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