COP26 Coalition: Science & Activism Event
Science & Activism: Acting with the Face of Evidence This event is taking place as part of the People’s Summit at COP26 in Glasgow. Scientists’ Warning’s
Science & Activism: Acting with the Face of Evidence This event is taking place as part of the People’s Summit at COP26 in Glasgow. Scientists’ Warning’s
The student community is more engaged now than ever with demanding that their universities end fossil fuel investments. An accelerating climate crisis, COP26, recent student-led divestment wins, and the urgency needed for a just green transition are some of the factors that motivate this engagement. Students call on the remaining 40% of UK universities who have not yet divested, to do so urgently.
“…there’s a very real possibility that the latter part of the lives of most of you in this room will be grim or non-existent.”
Universities do not deny the seriousness of anthropogenic dangerous climate change directly, but they are often complicit through its near-absence across much of the curriculum. This is partly born of a fear of ‘politicizing’ the problem. Yet unless we are willing to address the profoundly political and ethical questions raised by dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we have no hope of avoiding worst-case scenarios or of adapting transformatively to already locked-in harms.
A white desert of snow-covered peaks, startlingly blue skies, face-tingling ice crystals in the crisp cold air,– when I first flew into Svalbard on a reporting mission in the spring of 2007, the beauty of the high northern landscape fulfilled all my expectations of the cold, remote region of my imagination.
I had been covering climate change since the 1990s, when it was anything but a mainstream topic, either of conversation or media interest. Now the International Polar Year had brought me to the place most people would at that time still have assumed one of the last to be bothered by “global warming”.
Education is widely seen as conferring huge advantages, and educational institutions are recognised as wielding considerable social influence. They are the intellectual homes to researchers examining all aspects of the climate and ecological crisis (CEC). So why is it that decades after the first United Nations Conference of the Parties (CoP) on climate change, we have moved ever closer to a disaster and are currently in a planetary emergency?
Once upon a time, before I became Executive Director of Scientists Warning, I was an academic, a cognitive psychologist with a successful career. And I was also becoming increasingly aware of the climate crisis: the year on year rise in atmospheric CO2 levels, the loss of biodiversity, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and the loss of Arctic sea ice…
In this latest interview from ScientistsWarning.TV, Professor McGuire and Dr. Green talk about the need for scientists to speak up about the climate and ecological crisis, about geoengineering – what it is and why we should care – and his new novel, ‘Skyseed’, a terrifying yet realistic tale of geoengineering gone wrong.
Professor Chris Rapley (a member of the Scientists’ Warning Advisory Board) and colleagues Bill McGuire, Sarah Bracking, Simon Lewis, Jonathan Bamber and many others are inviting people across the scientific community to join a pledge to prevent catastrophic climate disruption and commit to full disclosure. It’s time to speak truth to power.
“For years, Guy Dauncey has tirelessly warned of the urgency of tackling the climate crisis and provided practical ways to achieve reductions in our emissions. While the crisis has only worsened, the window of opportunity to shift direction has shortened. Here is a blueprint for concrete action. Read it and act!” – David Suzuki