Disappointed, Angry, Terrified: Climate Scientists Call On Public To Become Activists
Now, as diplomats meet in Dubai for the COP28 climate conference, 1,447 scientists and academics, including 33 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change authors, have signed an open letter urging the public to take collective action to fight the climate crisis.
The letter, published on Monday by Scientist Rebellion, read: “We are terrified … We need you … Wherever you are, become a climate advocate or activist.” The Summit is being held in a year predicted to be the hottest on record and as emissions continue to rise.
“Join or start groups pushing for policies that help secure a better future,” the letter published by the climate activist group further read, highlighting the need for climate action to become “something that others do to something that we all do.”
The fortnight-long Dubai event is scheduled to continue till December 12. It marked a significant success on its first day itself as participants reached a historic agreement to operationalise the Loss and Damage Fund, meant to compensate poorer nations for climate-driven disasters.
Policies So Inadequate 3C Global Heating Could Be Reached This Century
Almost three decades since his first involvement with the IPCC, Wolfgang Cramer was part of the international scientific team that prepared the sixth IPCC report. Its conclusion, delivered in March, issued a warning that the biosphere stands on the verge of irrevocable damage.
Cramer said he and his scientific colleagues have become frustrated. Talking to The Guardian, he said governments in the West have a tendency to say: “‘Oh, we are already doing so much.'” He noted the need to be happy about every little step in the right direction.
But added: “I think the failure in communication … is to talk enough about the inadequacy … about the engagements that we see by governments at Cops, and in the implementation of their commitments at home, on the one hand, and clear targets of the Paris deal on the other.”
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Ahead of the Summit, the UN Environment Programme raised serious concerns over national carbon-cutting policies being so inadequate that 3C of global heating above pre-industrial levels would be reached this century. This could trigger catastrophic consequences.
