The discovery center for which I will soon be a docent has a mission of educational outreach, but visiting it is not like going to school. Central to our training is the realization that visitors aren’t compelled to be there, and we want them to feel happy and respected so they will stay. (Are you thinking, even prisoners should feel happy and be respected? This is the USA, folks, not Sweden.) Since climate change is a controversial topic for some, we get very specific training on how to frame the issue. The volunteers have an escape hatch, too: handing off to a staff member.

I have gotten pushback from acquaintances who think this approach shows a lack of backbone. Certainly the scientists in the marine lab we represent are ardent supporters of anthropogenic climate change, as in, Humans Caused This. Diluting that message appears to veer from science into marketing, something science-oriented volunteer-types generally aren’t big fans of.

As it turns out, things that seem like a Big Deal when you are listening to Comedy Central or browsing the web just aren’t as fraught when real people are face-to-face. During my Docent-in-Training day, I spent two hours on the volunteer side of the always-busy touch table. Consistently, people on the volunteer side of the table said, sea star, and people on the guest side said, starfish. No guest said, Why are you calling the starfish a sea star? No volunteer said, Scientists classify fish as vertebrates, and these are not vertebrates–though we would have said that had someone asked.

That is, people on both sides of this issue coexisted peacefully, while the volunteers consistently presented accurate scientific information. It’s true the star-name controversy isn’t something Republicans are energizing their base about, but plenty of people at, for example, my mom’s nursing home, including, for example, my mom, really feel starfish is a great word that did not need to change. Many of these people also insist that the indistinguishable rock in the Kuiper belt known as Pluto is a planet.

The good news is, people who say starfish can learn to differentiate between marine invertebrates and chordate fish, just as most Pluto fans can accurately identify the real planets. Similarly, those who don’t believe humans cause climate change can still understand how it is affecting oceans and marine organisms.

People in that latter group are actually more likely to believe humans can fix problems, which is really where we need to be focused. Those of you who see big fauna extinctions as a prerequisite for the Second Coming may disagree, but no one will argue with you at the discovery center.