The science is clear - why are we ignoring it?
The “Climate Inaction Warming Stripes“
You have come across this page because you scanned the QR code on a sign hanging by a gagged statue. The text on the blindfold reads “IPCC” and refers to reports on climate change put together by hundreds of scientists around the world in order for political actors to make informed decisions and act according to scientific facts pertaining to climate change and its consequences.
You can consult the IPCC reports at: https://www.ipcc.ch/reports/
Why do we gag scientists?
The statue you have seen gagged is that of a scientist.
Imagine a world where scientists are forbidden to speak up, forbidden to communicate their results or have them taught at school. A world in which there would be no voice to tell about threats on our world as we know it. Mankind wouldn’t be able to cope with danger, with crises, with the complexity of the world.
We are lucky enough not to be in this situation. Scientific results are published, recognized, as it is the case with the IPCC reports. Nonetheless, policy-makers have never seriously followed up on the scientific reality and on the transformative scenarios proposed in the reports. Neither the media nor the civil society have reacted strongly enough to trigger the change that is needed. While we as Europeans view ourselves as reasonable, grounded problem solvers, we are in fact ignoring the severity of the crisis, and not acting on it the way we should – and it is growing more destructive as we keep ignoring it!
The gagged scientist statues show how those raising the alarm have been silenced and dismissed for decades. These voices were as diverse as those of economists warning for the consequences of capitalism and industrialization, educators insisting on the necessity of education being dispensed to all social classes, philosophers warning about the risks of not exerting critical thinking. Einstein addressed the control of the sources of information by corporate interests as a threat to welfare in 1949, and Alexander von Humboldt pointed as early as 1844 that coal mining and deforestation would modify the climate. The knowledge of climate evolution and its impact on human societies has been available for a long time!
Why should you care?
The most effective means of achieving systemic change in modern history is through non-violent civil resistance, as did Gandhi’s Civil disobedience movement in India, or Claudette Colvin & Rosa Parks (and many more) fighting against segregation in the United States.
We call on academics, scientists, and the public to join us in civil disobedience to demand emergency decarbonisation and degrowth, facilitated by wealth redistribution.
Who are we?
We are Scientist Rebellion: Academics active in the scientific community in Germany and beyond, who step up for climate justice using non-violent civil disobedience.
See our start page.