Marching on the streets in support of climate-crisis actions

Charlie Gardner, conservationist and activist, is a lecturer in conservation biology, at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology in Canterbury, UK. He regularly takes part in protests for Scientists for Extinction Rebellion. A larger movementnonviolent civil disobedience to advocate for climate and biodiversity crisis action. He has also advised legislation such as The UK Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill, which seeks curb UK greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, is currently moving through Parliament.

What brought you to activism?

Teaching. I was in a lecture theatre with young people, six or five years ago. They were suffering the effects of climate change far more than me. I couldn’t stand that I wasn’t doing everything I could. Extinction Rebellion, (XR), was launched in October 2018 in the United Kingdom. It felt like the answer. We as conservationists wish that more people cared about the destruction of nature. They are now taking to the streets, and I feel a moral obligation to support them.

How have you worked with Scientists for XR in the past?

A group of scientists gathered together in October 2019 to create the “Standard for Scientific Computing”. Scientists for XR, which has taken many actions. These include pasting scientific papers to the walls of the London headquarters of News Corp in 2021 in protest against inadequate climate-change coverage in the company’s newspapers.

The group serves different purposes. One is to provide scientific assistance for the wider XR movement in order to ensure that it remains based upon solid scientific ground. The second is to advocate. Scientists who support XR send a powerful message. Society trusts scientists.

Direct action is a third function. Scientists from XR groups have participated in a variety of XR events such as marches or roadblocks. One example is the 2021 London Science Museum opening. Shell sponsored the opening. Some scientists locked themselves into the exhibition to protest the sponsorship. Our scientist group set up a table outside to show the principles of atmospheric cooling and engage the public. These events highlight the problem of science museums receiving sponsorship from fossil fuel companies.

How can scientists get involved in this type of work?

These direct actions are only a small part of the story. There are 20 people behind the scenes, who help with organizing, press releases, and baking cakes for marchers. There is a job for everyone, no matter what your interests are.

Participation does not require you to engage directly in civil disobedience, or to put yourself in a dangerous position. People should be willing to engage the public in conversation and stand at the edges of protests. That’s a role that scientists can perform fantastically.

What have you gained from activism and advocacy?

There’s this crazy notion that scientists shouldn’t speak out because it will damage their reputations. My career has been affected by activism. My research is based on conservation in Madagascar; it’s fairly niche. Prior to this, I had no international reputation. My reputation as a scientist-activist has risen since I started to speak out.

Also, activism is great to my mental health. Knowing I’m doing what I can is important to me. There are simply the best people in these movements, and there’s a sense of community.

Is being vocally active a detriment to your scientific credibility

Popular opinion holds that scientists must act as neutral sources of information and not speak out about what the information means. If we do, it could endanger our credibility.

Scientists who take risks and make sacrifices for the sake of their research communicate the urgency of the situation. If scientists are saying that it’s time for action, but not acting themselves, That undermines their own arguments.

How can you balance academic responsibilities and advocacy?

For five years, I was only half-time at University of Kent. I did this to give me the freedom to pursue other activities, such as activism, conservation consulting, and writing popular nonfiction. I quit that post last year to concentrate on activism and writing, as well as frustration at the precarious academic environment.

There are things that enable me to be less single-minded in the pursuit of my career: I come from a position of relative privilege; I’m not interested in accumulating money; and I don’t have children. So I think academia has been a good fit for me, but only because it doesn’t fill my life.

This interview has been edited to be more concise and clear.