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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
72 March/April 2022
to participating in climate demonstrations – it
appears that being photographed waving a
banner remains a “bridge too far” for the majority
of working scientists. Whether this too changes
as climate impacts intensify remains to be seen.
While as individuals, most scientists are happy
to engage in advocacy, three quarters of
respondents did not think the IPCC itself should
engage in advocacy work, believing it is more
eective when it is seen to be strictly “sticking to
the science”. Given the repeated eorts, mainly
from the right, to politicise climate science and to
discredit scientific evidence by casting doubt on
the integrity and honesty of the entire IPCC
process, this caution is understandable.
The stone wall that most scientists erect
between their personal lives and their work has,
in the face of the climate emergency, begun to
crumble. Two in five survey respondents
admitted that their knowledge of global warming
has aected their decision on where to live.
When it came to the most intimate personal
decision on whether or not to have children, some
17% stated it had had an impact, while 21% said
that global warming had influenced their lifestyle
choices, including those relating to diet, transport
and travel.
Being a professional in a field often confers
feelings of invincibility: many doctors for instance
intuitively believe that illness is something that
happens to other people, and can feel genuinely
shocked to find themselves as patients. Similarly,
scientists may have hitherto felt professionally
immune to touchy-feely concepts like “climate
anxiety”. We now know for sure that this is no
longer the case.
John Gibbons is an environmental journalist and
commentator
assessing the causes and extent of climate
change. It published its Working Group report
last August.
According to the IPCC: “Unless there are
immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to
close to 1.5 °C or even 2° C will be beyond reach”.
When asked whether they believed they would
witness “catastrophic impacts of climate change
in your lifetime”, an astonishing 82% of
respondents said yes. With ages of IPCC scientists
ranging from the 30s-60s, this indicates just how
close the great majority believe we are now to
catastrophe.
On a more positive note, one in five scientists
said they still expect nations to act to limit global
warming to around 2°C.
While traditionally, scientists have been
extremely reluctant to engage in climate
advocacy of any kind, fearing it might be seen as
a loss of objectivity, the Nature survey found 81%
of respondents agreeing that climate scientists
“should engage in advocacy on this issue”.
Some two thirds of scientists report that they
already engage in climate-advocacy work, with
science-promotion via speeches, articles and
videos being by far the most common mediums.
Two in five said they personally contacted
lawmakers or government ocials to advocate on
climate-policy issues, and a similar number sign
petitions and letters supporting climate action.
However, just one in four scientists admitted
A
s the climate emergency deepens, the
pendulum of public and political
opinion is swaying wildly, from
optimism to absolute despair, and
every point in between. However, one
group uniquely placed to oer both a personal
view and an expert perspective are the hundreds
of scientists who co-author the mammoth
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) assessment reports.
The science journal Nature recently canvassed
the views of these IPCC experts. The results are
far from encouraging. A total of 234 scientists
replied to the anonymised survey, and three in
five of them believe the Earth will heat by at least
a devastating 3°C by the end of the century.
The target of the 2015 Paris Agreement was to
limit global warming to “well below” the 2°C
danger line, and ideally, to as close to 1.5° as
possible. Seven years and one global pandemic
later, global emissions remain on an extremely
dangerous trajectory.
When asked if they believed the world now
faces a “climate crisis”, nine in 10 respondents
agreed. Almost two thirds of the scientists
surveyed admitted to personally experiencing
“anxiety, grief or other distress” because of their
concerns over climate change.
What is particularly sobering about these
findings is that senior scientists are professionally
sceptical and cautious, with their careers built
around objective observation and empirical data,
rather than personal feelings or impressions.
They are, in essence, the very last group you
would expect to be sounding the alarm bells –
unless they truly believe the situation is indeed
dire. The scientists surveyed by Nature are
members of the IPCC working group charged with
The science journal Nature reported three in
five IPCC experts believe the Earth will heat
by at least a devastating 3°C by the end of
the century
Feeling the Heat
Even the scientists admit to feeling personal
anxiety, grief or distress, over global warming
By John Gibbons
ENVIRONMENT
