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    Scientists! What can we do?

    Science Perspectives Reflections

    As we face an escalating planetary crisis in a “post-truth” era, how can scientists be most effective in informing and accelerating positive transformations?

    

    If you’re a scientist reading this post there is a good chance that you are deeply worried about the unfolding impacts of climate and ecological breakdown. There's also a good chance that you feel a sense of powerlessness: maybe you don’t know what to do about it, or believe that nothing you do will make a difference? If this is you, you’re not alone. I know this anecdotally - scientists express these difficult feelings to me regularly - but also empirically; in an era where the scientific consensus is clear that humans are continuing to drive existential threats to our only home, scientists themselves report overwork, fear of personal and professional consequences and a perceived lack of support as major barriers to engaging in the types of action they want to be part of.* Just a few years ago, I was thinking and feeling all of the above. But now I know that these barriers to action can be overcome, and that doing so can bring us motivation, empowerment, community and hope. 


    Driven by the question of what a scientist’s role could or should be in an imperrilled world where our warnings and evidence are so often ignored or dismissed, the past few years have led me to protests, to parliament, and ultimately to parting ways with a research career I truly loved (more on this here). Along the way I have learned so much from so many brave, compassionate and perceptive scientists and change-makers. In this post I’d like to share two insights this has brought me to: why scientists have so much power to make a difference, and the many ways we can use that power effectively.

    

    The "why"...


    Scientists, as well as academics more broadly, are in a strong position to accelerate transitions needed to protect nature, mitigate global heating and adapt to a changing world. Here are some of the reasons why:


    • We have valuable skills in understanding, distilling and communicating complex concepts. Converting data and evidence into simpler, more usable outputs is precisely what many of us have been trained to do throughout our careers. Whatever our discipline, we can draw on these foundations in cultivating our own and others’ knowledge about climate, nature and effective Emergency action. 
    • Scientists are still trusted messengers. Amidst alarming trends towards science, experts and even truth itself being undermined and dismissed, trust in scientists remains high around the world, with most agreeing that scientists should be more actively engaged and policymaking and wider society. Public trust in scientists also means that when we take action as part of environmental social movements, we can help challenge pervasive, inaccurate stereotypes about who cares and who is involved.
    • Scientists can have greater public reach and access to media than many other groups do, as a result of our networks, perceived legitimacy and (in circumstances such as being a visible presence at a protest) novelty. 
    • Scientist solidarity is powerful and necessary. Scientists working on climate and biodiversity have been sounding the alarm for decades, yet those warnings have not translated into proportionately urgent action. The more of us there are acting in line with the findings of the scientific community, the more likely we are to have our warnings widely heard, taken seriously and acted upon. Conversely, acting as passive bystanders risks undermining scientists' calls for necessary, transformative action. 
    • We all have a personal investment in there being a habitable Earth for ourselves and future generations. Additionally, for scientists' work to make a positive difference to people and other species, there is a fundamental need to protect the climate, ecological and societal systems that make it possible: there is “no research on a dead planet”. 

    

    Given all of these reasons (and more), do scientists have greater responsibility to push for change? Albert Einstein, whose image has come to symbolise “scientist” to many, is often quoted as saying, "Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act". I’ve come to agree, but would add that stepping into that responsibility isn’t all ‘duty’ and sacrifice. We have so much more to gain from working together to secure the best possible version of our collective future than we all risk losing if we don’t.

    

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    How can scientists and academics respond to the Emergency? Here are just some of our tried-and-tested approaches.

    

    ...and the "how".


    So what can we practically do as scientists facing this escalating Emergency? Our recent research article and accompanying piece out today in The Conversation focus on the many ways scientists can support the social movements pushing for systemic change. Participating in nonviolent protest and being a part of the communities that have formed around this has been a huge part of my own journey, and I would love to see many more scientists benefitting directly from the movements that have informed and empowered my actions to date…but I also appreciate that not everyone is equally able to or safe to participate. What’s most important at this critical moment, is that we each act in the best way we can, and that we support one another to do the same. This will look different for each of us. It’ll be affected by our strengths, our privileges, our relationships, our vulnerabilities and our restrictions. We might be best-positioned to act from within a social movement, in our local or professional communities, via our job(s), from behind a computer, out on the streets or any combination thereof. With this in mind the following is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive - simply six broad areas where we know scientists can make valuable contributions. These draw heavily on the work and ideas of my great friend Dr Charlie Gardner. 


    1. Learn: We can use our skills to better understand the crises, possible interventions and the disparity between political, corporate or institutional rhetoric and the action needed to protect societies and ecosystems.
    2. Communicate: We can disseminate our knowledge of the Emergency via one-to-one conversations, by leading trainings, seminars or workshops, or through traditional and social media. 
    3. Influence: We can push for meaningful change and action within our workplaces, networks, organisations and democracies. This involves engaging pro-actively with people who have decision-making powers, reevaluating and challenging the ‘status quo’, and leading by example with our choices personally and professionally.
    4. Activate: Social scientific evidence, as well as historical precedents, show that social movements can have great capacity to catalyse rapid transitions. There’s a huge range of strategies - from traditional campaigning to civil disobedience - where scientists’ positions, skills, expertise, credibility and networks could be invaluable.
    5. Create the better alternatives: Our knowledge and technical capabilities can be applied to building the resilient, equitable and sustainable systems our times demand. This could involve shifting our professional focus and/or engaging with movements and initiatives outside of our formal roles.
    6. ‘Regenerate’: The realities of the Emergency are uncomfortable, challenging and frightening. A better outlook is only possible if we collectively acknowledge this, act with compassion and support one another amidst difficult transitions, hardship, grief and uncertainty. Balance, rest, empathy, and community are essential to sustaining action. 


    Writing earlier this year with an old friend and former university classmate about how algae are changing as our oceans heat and acidify, we concluded that “much like the incredible life we study, the scientific community can - and must - evolve to meet the existential challenges of our age”. We have no time to lose. 



    * See Wanting to be part of change but feeling overworked and disempowered: Researchers’ perceptions of climate action in UK universities Latter et al, 2024, PLoS Climate (open access) & Climate change engagement of scientists Dablander et al, 2024, Nature Climate Change. This study is paywalled but a key finding is that the majority of scientists said they wanted to engage in climate advocacy but a minority actually did. Similarly, almost half of the surveyed scientists said they’d be willing to engage in protests and/or nonviolent civil disobedience but a much smaller minority do so in practice. 


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    Always A Scientist

    Reflections Updates Science
    Personal reflections at the end of a 15 year chapter in academic research science.
    ‘Scientist’ is usually the first word I use to describe myself, and that's probably because throughout my adulthood ‘scientist’ has been not only my job but something of an identity. Hence my exit from academic research this year has felt like a massive transition personally as well as professionally. But as much of a wrench as it has been to leave the lab bench behind me, the data, the evidence, my head and my heart are aligned on this one: in an era that will be defined by how we respond to compounding existential threats, it’s time to find a new way of being a scientist.

    Once a scientist...

    Scientific research can be such an incredible job to get to do. You’re tasked with observing, investigating and documenting a slice of the as-yet-unknown. You could well be the first – or even the only – person to witness or understand something amazing about the fabric of our world. It was surprisingly easy to lose that sense of wonder whilst immersed in competitive pursuit of the data, publications, funding and accolades that make it possible to keep climbing the career ladder in academia. But now, outside of that environment, I’m grateful to be able to look back with fondness on the tens of thousands of hours I spent planning experiments, tending to colourful flasks of assorted microbes, peering down increasingly fancy microscopes, developing those dreaded Western blots, then processing, analysing and sharing the insights this all generated. I’d really thought that my life in science would stay something like this until a comfortable retirement sometime in the 2060s. But about half a century ahead of schedule, its course started to look very different.  ​
    As a researcher studying malaria parasites and later similar types of environmentally-important ocean microbes, I’d felt motivated by the idea that we were making a meaningful contribution to improving lives and preventing suffering. But, catalysed by growing public concern about climate change in 2018, I’d found myself conflicted about the narrative that my research career was a noble pursuit, or something that would ultimately benefit humanity.  I’d started to ‘zoom out’ and see the wider context I was working within: one where thousands of scientists had clearly identified imminent, existential threats; one where transforming our societies is the only way to prevent their collapse… but where we’re still struggling to translate knowledge into the action needed to protect life on Earth. 

    Despite wide acknowledgement of the climate and ecological emergency, and despite rhetoric around environmental sustainability, very little about the culture and daily experience of working in research science was changing around me. It was an uncomfortable paradox that I felt badly equipped to navigate - the new ‘normal’ was, on the surface of it, to accept that we’re facing crises that will profoundly change our lives… whilst simultaneously continuing with our work pretty much unchanged by that knowledge (though perhaps paying a bit more attention to plastic recycling). I found this confusing, especially amongst the research community, who I’d assumed to be in a prime position to understand and respond to what the science was telling us. In their article “No research on a dead planet” my friend Dr Aaron Thierry and co-authors explore why this ‘double reality’ currently prevails: none of us are immune to powerful psychological incentives to minimise or suppress our knowledge and feelings about frightening information, but – vitally – we each do have agency and opportunity to overcome these barriers and start to play a role in creating necessary, transformative change in our systems, institutions and societies. 

    For me it was feelings of fear, despair and isolation – not of duty nor agency – that first led me to find community as part of environmental social movements. I was especially drawn to spaces where scientists were organising, and all I’ve learned there has evolved my perception of what a scientist’s role could or should be in the 21st century (summarised here and potentially the subject of a future blog post). It empowered me to be braver, to explore how a scientist can make a positive impact within and beyond their job. So, alongside making various transitions in my lifestyle and research direction, I began, initially tentatively, to talk much more openly about the disruption of Earth’s life-supporting systems, my fears and feelings about what that meant for us, and my experiences of taking action in response.  At work I attempted to start conversations about how academics might support and accelerate positive transformations, to activate people in leadership positions, to push for accessible and impactful environmental education and to build networks. Beyond the lab, I found many other avenues where a science background together with experience in advocacy and activism could be usefully combined; from facilitating workshops in my local community to amplifying scientists’ warnings through campaigning and direct action. ​

    ... always a scientist?

    Overall I’ve been very fortunate to have had a positive experience in moving from knowing about to acting upon the climate and ecological emergency.  The reactions of colleagues, friends, family and the wider public along the way have largely been encouraging and motivating,  though there have been challenging complexities, tensions and occasional hostility. Amongst the more painful have been in recognising and attempting to counter the inertia that persists within academia – a home I had, maybe naively, thought I’d be effectively-placed to help activate from within. Like many scientists I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with (including the authors of these calls-to-action), I still believe in the potential of the scientific research community, and of universities in particular, to foster and adapt to rapid change in our environment and societies.  However, my own attempts to cultivate engagement and action have felt much less constrained – and ultimately more effective – where I’ve been working outside of any academic role, instead acting as a scientist in wider society. 
    The work I now prioritise focuses on exactly that; bringing the most essential science out of academic silos and into the places it needs to be understood and acted upon. In 2024, those included public and community spaces, local and national government, and, via an innovative educational start-up, some of the world’s biggest corporations. I don’t feel any less a ‘scientist’ having made a leap out of the research spaces that had become comfortably familiar.  I’m still discovering, learning, experimenting, analysing and communicating, only now I use different methods in different environments to better align my actions with addressing broader, more urgent questions and challenges. I miss the lab, the students, the microbes and the associated moments of awe that were part of my life as a more traditional academic scientist, but I’m excited by the opportunities and impact that are already part of this new chapter. 
  • Published on

    Explain the Emergency … in 10 minutes?

    Science
    I’m often asked to give an overview of the science of the climate and nature emergency in something like ten minutes…. and this is no small task. How can we capture the interconnected threats to life on Earth, conveying the vast scale and the urgent, urgent need for transformative action?  How can we do that for audiences that we don’t know much about, who may not have had the opportunity to think very seriously about these difficult subjects before? How can we do that in a way that tells the whole truth but doesn’t throw those who hear it into a state of overwhelm, denial, or despair… but instead empowers and motivates?  Is it possible to do this in ten minutes??? 

    It feels important to try, and to find out!  So I’ve challenged myself to sit down for just one hour and write down what I think are the absolute core things - without getting distracted by the details however important they are/feel - that any person needs to know to start on their own journey from knowing to acting. It won’t be polished, it won't be perfect - but it can form the basis of something that can be tested and refined. It’s what I know and communicate all the time, so I should have the really core message at my fingertips, right?  It feels daunting nonetheless, but here goes….

    Our  Climate  &  Nature  Emergency:  the  bare  essentials

    If there were just a few key things I wish as many people as possible would know, but also feel about the climate and ecological emergency… they would be something like these:

    The threats are massive and widely underestimated. 
    Humans face escalating fires, floods, food shortages and consequent health and societal crises. 

    It’s happening NOW,
    having a devastating impact on millions of people and countless other species around the world already.

    The impacts will get worse,
    and are likely to do so     very rapidly. Every person and every species will experience those impacts. 

    This is extremely unfair 
    globally, socially and intergenerationally. 

    Current actions are nowhere near enough. 
    We need to transform our mindsets and systems if we are to secure a liveable future for ourselves, for future generations and for other species. 

    We can make a difference 
     but only if we act now and act together. 

    Here is a brief summary of what I mean by each of these…

    The threats are massive, and widely underestimated
    • We know the Earth is heating up, and it’s heating faster than it has done since the human species evolved. Science is clear that this is a direct result of greenhouse gas emissions, caused predominantly by human activities such as burning fuels, agriculture  and chemical use.
    • In parallel the ecosystems that regulate our climate and that we are dependent on for essential food and resources, continue to be destroyed. Humans have radically changed the land - clearing forest, degrading soils, polluting the water air and beyond. Species are going extinct over a thousand times faster than would be expected otherwise. 
    • These effects combine to threaten the existence of every species on Earth, for example through heatwaves, fires, floods, storms, food scarcity, displacement and conflict.
    • It can be easy to feel like these threats aren’t as bad as they are, especially when we don’t see many leaders, or even the scientists studying these threats, acting proportionate to their own warnings. 

    It’s happening now.  
    • Since humans began shaping the land on a global scale, we have been destroying irreplaceable ecosystems and disrupting the finely balanced functioning of the wider Earth system.  
    • We have already seen direct impacts such as the loss of wild places and species, and there being hotter and less stable climate, and we are now seeing the knock-on effects on humans. 
    • There are so many examples that it’s hard to find the ‘right’ record shattering heatwave, raging wildfire, or heartbreaking famine or conflict to highlight. As I write this I’m hearing about the deadly flooding in Valencia, Spain after ‘almost a year’s worth’ of rain fell in a single day.

    The impacts will get worse
    • The worst effects of the harm already caused are yet to be seen; they take time to unfold… there is a delay between the cause and the full impact. Just one example I think about often is that, even with immediate radical climate action, entire island nations and major population centres will still likely be submerged due to sea level rise by the end of the century. Low-lying coastal cities - London, Los Angeles, Rio and many more - may not remain defendable in my own lifetime. 
    • The essential systems that we need to survive on this planet are so incredibly interdependent. Disruption to one part of one of those systems has cascading impacts over time -  imagine the cascading impacts on a food web if the organism at the base of it is wiped out. 
    • Worse, we know that nonlinear phenomena involving feedback loops and tipping points can massively accelerate warming and the breakdown of ecosystems.  We know we are perilously close to triggering major irreversible changes of state in our Earth system…  but we do not know exactly how close…or if we have already done so.

    This is extremely unfair 
    • The people most responsible for causing and exacerbating these threats are very different to those who are most immediately and most badly impacted by them.
    • This injustice compounds existing global and social inequalities, for example between countries, wealth levels and generations. 
    • A small number of people and organisations have personally profited from knowingly making this predicament worse and/or spreading misinformation to delay action to address it. Despite the now widely accepted science about the climate and ecological emergency, this continues in constantly evolving forms. 

    Current actions are nowhere near enough. 
    • This section could easily turn into somewhere between a rant and a scream so I’ll keep it extremely brief:  despite talk and advertising suggesting otherwise, it’s hard to think of any examples of governments or major corporations that are acting in line with what science is clear is necessary, or even their own (usually also inadequate) pledges. 
    • Our conversations need to transform from action being about doing incrementally-less-harm-than-we-used-to (e.g. slightly reducing the deforestation/emissions/exploitation we cause year by year) to actively making things better (i.e. regenerating and restoring)

    We can make a difference 
    • There are some frightening changes that are now essentially locked-in… but we, collectively, have a choice about how bad, how rapid and how unfair we allow what happens next to be. 
    • What can we do? In a nutshell: 
      • End the extraction, destruction and pollution we have become so accustomed to.
      • Repair, restore and regenerate the natural systems that enable and support life to thrive.
      • Communicate and collaborate to empower and accelerate action. 
    • Individualised action has an importance, but we are so much more powerful when we act together.  By influencing the systems, structures and cultures we operate within, we make it easier for one another to take more effective action. 
    • We often underestimate others’ level of care and willingness to act - it’s hard to be the ‘first’ to speak up or try something different, it can also feel scary to get behind that first person when they do (even if you’re fully with them in spirit)... but when we are brave enough to show our willingness and our courage we build momentum, we build movements, we build hope and we create change.  

    So those were the words that flowed onto a blank page when I gave myself an hour to get them out.  I gave myself an hour… I took almost two. But I know if I hadn’t set that intention I would otherwise have obsessed over referencing and phrasing and would have been less likely to home in on the absolute essentials. I intend to look at this with fresh eyes, perhaps add some visuals (and maaaaybe even a reference or six) to make it more engaging and useful to anyone who reads it.