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Scientists risk arrest to sound climate alarm
A loosely federated network of scientists in more than two dozen countries plan acts of civil disobedience starting this week to highlight the climate crisis.
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In this file photo, members of climate action protest group Scientist Rebellion hold signs during a demonstration in Glasgow on the sidelines of the COP26 UN Climate Change Summit on November 8, 2021. (AFP/Andy Buchanan)
A
loosely federated network of scientists in more than two dozen countries plan acts of civil disobedience starting this week to highlight the climate crisis, members of Scientist Rebellion told AFP.
Their non-violent actions are timed to the release Monday of a landmark report from the UN's climate science advisory panel laying out options for slashing carbon pollution and controversial schemes for extracting CO2 from the air, they said in interviews.
Scientist Rebellion targets universities, research institutes and major scientific journals, prodding them and their staff to speak out more forcefully on what they describe as the existential threat of global warming.
"Scientists are particularly powerful messengers, and we have a responsibility to show leadership," said Charlie Gardner, a conservation scientist at the University of Kent specialised in tropical biodiversity.
"We are failing in that responsibility. If we say it's an emergency, we have to act like it is."
Starting Monday, the group hopes to see "high levels of disobedience" with more than 1,000 scientists worldwide taking part in direct non-violent action against government and academic institutions.
The world has seen a crescendo of deadly extreme weather amplified by rising temperatures -- heatwaves, wildfires, flooding, storms engorged by rising seas -- and a torrent of recent climate science projects worse to come.
