Civil disobedience by scientists expected this week over climate change
OPINION: Imagine devoting your life to researching an important scientific issue, issuing advice to decision-makers based on it, then watching on as most or all of it is ignored. Thats the position a lot of our best scientists find themselves in when it comes to climate change. For years, theyve issued warnings about the impacts of higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions and the myriad implications for the planet. Despite the overwhelming evidence base supporting a need for urgent change, the response has been too little too late. So you can understand their frustration. Many scientists are angry and they are not going to take it any more. This week, under the Scientist Rebellion banner , hundreds of them, mainly in Europe and the US, are going to resort to civil disobedience. READ MORE: * The (NZ) climate scientist taking on Brazil's Bolsonaro * Looking ahead to Glasgow, let's not curb our enthusiasm * Addressing existential dread: How do we deal with the latest climate news? Theyll go on strike, organise lock-ins on university campuses, and stage disruptive protests at governmental institutions. If they live up to their word, we may see respected professors dragged away in handcuffs. Theyll do it all to coincide with the release of the next instalment of the 6th Assessment Report, which is being released this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Imagine two people are sitting in a house, explains British climate activist Mike Lynch-White, a former theoretical physics PhD candidate and the co-founder of Scientist Rebellion. One turns to the other and calmly states that the house is on fire and the roof is about to collapse and kill them both. If the person making the warning then calmly returns to their morning newspaper, how can we expect the other to truly understand the claim of imminent disaster? Hes got a point. But will scientists adopting the activist tactics of Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion make any difference? I dont think so. I cant see a farmer in the Groundswell NZ movement being any more convinced of the need to reduce cow numbers because scientists chain themselves to the Ministry for the Environment. The people who Scientist Rebellion will appeal to are already on board with the need for climate action. Those resisting change, many of them with considerable power, wont be convinced. If anything, it will make them more stubborn in their opposition. We know that the messenger is more important than the message, the Scientist Rebellion organisers rightly point out. But the evidence also suggests that whether the issue is climate change or vaccination, people are more likely to be influenced by those in their sphere who they know and trust. Those people are unlikely to be scientists. Scientists have a crucial role to play as honest brokers in society, presenting the evidence of climate change and its likely impacts in a non-partisan way. How that evidence is interpreted and communicated by key influencers in the business world, in politics and in our communities, will determine how seriously we collectively take climate change. The impacts of a changing climate are becoming more apparent to us here and around the world. Now is not the time for the smartest people in the room to lose their heads. We need their rational, measured guidance more than ever.