Sally Jewell on Trump's science policy, tackling climate change and her hope for the future

Kim Malcolm talks with Sally Jewell about EarthLab — a new project from the University of Washington.

Jewell was U.S. Interior Secretary under President Obama. Now she's at the UW, chairing EarthLab's advisory council.

Sally Jewell on the goal of Earth Lab:

"Practical solutions to real world challenges. It’s opening the doors of the community to the University of Washington and asking: ‘How can we help you? What do you need? What are the solutions?’ It's taking great research that often sits on a shelf, and unlocking it."

On her reaction to the recent UN climate report:

"To say it's a wake-up call is not sufficient. It's a bucket of ice water on our heads about how important it is that we take action.

I join a chorus of people who are not feeling good about where our federal government is going, and saying ‘we have got to take action at every level, and we're not going to wait for the feds to act.’ It is very scary.

We've got to unlock the curiosity and the excitement of young people who are students today, because they're inheriting a real challenge. And it's up to people of my generation to help them figure out how to take their talents and skills and put them to use."

On the Trump administration’s science policies:

"I think the President and his team are doing an enormous disservice to the people of the United States and the people of the world by abandoning the importance of science.

We all rely on federal science when we look at apps on our phones to see what the weather's going to be. Or we look at the prediction of a hurricane that's about to make landfall. These are things that are brought to us by scientists within the federal government that are essential to our health and well-being.

And any abandonment of that is an abandonment of the interests of the American people, and the interests of the world. I think it's abhorrent what they’re doing."

On her hope for the future:

"You have to have hope for the future.

There was a proverb I used every single day in my mind, as I made very difficult decisions as Secretary of the Interior: ‘We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.’

Every one of us owe it to the next generation to take the knowledge we've learned to inspire them craft real solutions.

I'm basically an optimist. And I’m a believer in human ingenuity. But my god, we have got to put those skills and talents to work. And it’s great when our federal government and our state governments are aligned in that journey.

But without that, I think it's very important for citizens to step forward and say ‘this is important to us, because we do care about what kind of a future we're leaving to those succeeding generations."