More than 1,000 scientists in 25 different countries carried out acts of civil disobedience this month as part of protests organized by the international climate movement Scientist Rebellion. Over 100 participants, many donning lab coats, were arrested in demonstrations around the world.
Organizers and supporters signed an open letter emphasizing the “grossly inadequate” efforts to reduce global emissions, and expressed their duty to “expose the reality and severity of the climate and ecological emergency by engaging in non-violent civil disobedience.”
“There’s no time to wait around, there’s no time for continued inaction – the people deserve to know NOW what our corporate owned politicians have done to them,” Scientist Rebellion’s website states. The greatest crime ever has already been carried out – the perpetrators are still at liberty, but the victims are starting to pile up.”
In London, 25 protestors glued their hands, along with pages of scientific papers, to the windows of the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, calling attention to the climate facts they say the government is ignoring, according to The Guardian.
Tennessee-based soil scientist Rose Abramoff traveled to Washington, D.C., where she and six others chained themselves to the White House fence to demand immediate climate action. All were arrested.
“There’s really a paradigm shift that’s starting among scientists about this idea of neutrality and remaining unbiased,” Abramoff told E&E News. “I was always taught to remain unbiased in order to maintain my credibility… but it’s not political to tell the truth. Serving the habitability of life on this planet is not and should not be a political issue.”
Their efforts coincide with the release of the UN’s most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which indicates that world leaders only have a three-year window to reduce carbon emissions enough to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius in this century.