Scientists must act and speak up. It's about survival, not politics
Extinction Rebellion Australia, 20 Jan 2025
"There are nearly 9 million scientists in the world, making up a tribe that is one of the most trusted groups on the planet. Imagine the noise they could make if they spoke with one voice; think of the impetus it would give climate activism."–Bill McGuire and Roger Hallam
SCIENTIST REBELLION AUSTRALIA & AOTEAROA Welcome Meeting
Weds, 5 Feb 2025
6pm AEDT (Melb Syd), 8pm NZDT (Aukland)
Come and find out how YOU can be part of the solution to a world in crisis. Register for the online event and find out more about Scientist Rebellion. A zoom link will be emailed to you before the event.
"Last year will go down as the first time that the global average temperature exceeded 1.5C above preindustrial times over a calendar year. We could crash permanently through the 1.5C guardrail within the next five years, and shatter the 2C limit as soon as 2034. This will almost certainly result in the tipping points for collapse of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets being crossed committing us to the drowning of coastal towns and cities."
(From Scientists prize neutrality – that doesn’t cut it any more. In 2025, they must fully back the climate movement by Bill McGuire and Roger Hallam,The Guardian, 10 Jan 2025.)
Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL and author of Hothouse Earth: an Inhabitant’s Guide. Roger Hallam is co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil. As noted in the Guardian article, both have first-hand experience of the government's harsh treatment of climate activists and attempts to block the build-up of pressure for climate action.
XR Scientist Rebellion spokesperson Janine O'Keefe said "As scientists, we sometimes need to lift our heads out of the detail and look at the macro picture. The Earth is telling us we are in an emergency. The accelerated heating has started and is beginning to take off exponentially. We need to step up."
"In order to protect all life, we need to listen to nature and read the signs and make use of the best available science. The only way to be honest and impartial is to read and react to the science. Doing nothing and remaining silent is not impartial, it is choosing the path of the liars and deniers."
"To not act on the science is to be 'political', it is to choose the path of the political class with their wealthy climate-denying masters. Any society that is denying science has lost its grip on common sense and is beginning to behave like religions of the dark ages, relying on propaganda, lies and terror. To reduce conflict in society and have any hope of combatting climate and environmental disaster, we need to have science as our common base and scientists in our vanguard."
NOTE. The diagram in the top graphic is from the 2023 update to the Planetary boundaries.
Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Credit: "Azote for Stockholm Resilience Centre, based on analysis in Richardson et al 2023". More information and link to download the illustration.