Scientists Protest Against Climate Change in the World After the IPCC Report | Smart News

Over 1,000 scientists from 25 different countries staged protests last week following the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s new report. The reportTo avoid catastrophic climate consequences, rapid and severe cuts in greenhouse gas emissions must be made by 2025.

The Scientist Rebellion is a group that writes in a Letter that “current actions and plans are grossly inadequate, and even these obligations are not being met.” Their protests “highlight the urgency and injustice of the climate and ecological crisis,” per a StatementFrom the organization.

Los Angeles: Scientists including Peter Kalmus (a NASA climate scientist working with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) chained themselves to JP Morgan Chase’s building.

“We’ve been trying to warn you guys for so many decades,” Kalmus says, his voice shaking. “The scientists of the world have been being ignored. And it’s gotta stop. We’re going to lose everything.”

Reports state that they were met by around 100 police officers dressed in riot gear, and taken into custody. Salon’s Eric Schank.

Chelsea Harvey reports that scientist have been criticized for their opinions on becoming activists in the past. However, this has changed in recent years. E&E News. 

Kalmus has contributed several opinions to the Guardian Concerning climate change, calling to end the fossil fuel industry and switch to renewables. 

“It’s now the eleventh hour and I feel terrified for my kids, and terrified for humanity,” he writes in a Guardian op-ed. “I feel deep grief over the loss of forests and corals and diminishing biodiversity. But I’ll keep fighting as hard as I can for this Earth, no matter how bad it gets, because it can always get worse. And it will continue to get worse until we end the fossil fuel industry and the exponential quest for ever more profit at the expense of everything else.”

Scientists from all over the globe expressed similar fears during protests last Wednesday and demanded that their governments take swift action to address climate change. 

Scientist Rebellion protesters in Washington, D.C. chained their bodies to the White House fence. Spanish scientists poured fake blood over the National Congress facade. Panamanian scientists held demonstrations at several embassies. German protesters stuck themselves to a bridge. According to the Scientist Rebellion statement in Malawi, scientists held an occupation at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. 

“Listen to the scientists,” Amwanika Sharon, a Scientist Rebellion member protesting oil exploration and refinery construction in Uganda, says to Common Dreams’ Jessica Corbett. “Hear the voices of activists. Climate justice now

Scientist Rebellion was established in 2020 by Ph.D. Students in Scotland who were inspired in part by the Extinction Rebellion. The Extinction Rebellion is a “movement using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency,” per its Website.

“I’m not sure if this is our last chance,” Jordan Cruz, an Ecuadorian environmental engineer, writes to The AFP’s Marlowe Hood in an email. He wrote, “I’m terrified.” “But it is the kind of fear which motivates action. It is survival.

Scientist Rebellion members have participated in several protests, including at COP26, Glasgow, at universities throughout the U.K., as well as in front of the Royal Society. The IPCC report was leaked to the organization last year. 

Charlie Gardner, a University of Kent conservation scientist, told AFP that scientists are powerful messengers and that they have a responsibility for leading. “We are failing in this responsibility. We must act as if it’s an emergency if we claim it’s not.