Lack of political progress compelling some scientists to become climate activists
Researchers are noticing a rising tide of anger and action by climate scientists – as they are frustrated that ever-more dire forecasts and extreme events related to climate change are not provoking an effective response. Peter Kalmus is one of them.
The climate scientist is freaked out and he thinks everyone should be just as alarmed as he is over the current state of the planet. He is worried that the accumulation of scientific evidence is not leading the global community to necessary action.
“Policymakers in general are not responding appropriately to the science that we have been giving them,” Kalmus said. By 2012, he had abandoned his career in astrophysics to pursue work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US on the impact of rising temperatures.
In order to do more to confront the problem, Kalmus, two other scientists and an engineer on April 6, 2022, blockaded a Los Angeles branch of JP Morgan Chase, a prominent investment banking firm that invests heavily in fossil fuel extraction.
He got arrested for trespassing. The protest was part of a global effort that day by members of the international environmentalist group Scientist Rebellion, which claims the event was “the largest civil disobedience campaign by scientists in history.”
Scientists taking action over raging climate crisis
Early last December, earth scientist Rose Abramoff started an 80-hour cross-country train ride from Boston’s South Station to the 2023 conference of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco, California, according to Nature.
Out of concern for her carbon footprint, she no longer flies even if the ground journey takes 10 times as long and costs more. The lengthy journey gave the scientist a lot of time to think about what happened a year before at the previous AGU annual meeting.
In the beginning of the conference, Abramoff and Kalmus leapt onto the stage and unfurled a banner for Scientist Rebellion. Soon an official escorted them out of the hall, as they had anticipated. Their protest lasted all of 30 seconds.
The Union also confiscated their conference badges and officially expelled them from the rest of the meeting. More than 2,000 researchers called on the entity to reverse its sanctions on the two individuals. But that wasn’t the only consequence.
Abramoff was then an associate scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. But Oak Ridge eventually fired her. Kalmus did not lose his position but Jet Propulsion Laboratory officials issued him a warning. Abramoff now works as an independent researcher.
Read More: Global climate action needs women. There can be no Planet B without them
Exploring scientists’ attitudes on climate change
Last year, a survey conducted of 9,220 researchers across the globe found that more than 90% agree that “fundamental changes to social, political and economic systems” are needed. It is one of the largest global surveys on scientists’ attitudes on climate.
Overall, 78% of the respondents said they had discussed climate change with someone other than a colleague, 29% had been involved in climate advocacy, 23% had joined legal demonstrations and 10% had engaged in civil disobedience.
Read More: Greta Thunberg’s life away from climate activism: Here’s a glimpse
