''' '' SCIENTISTS REBELLION
SCIENTIFIC '' '''
I WAS FIRED FOR SPEAKING UP ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE : Shortly after the New
Year, I was fired from Oak Ridge National Laboratory after urging fellow
scientists to take action on climate change.
At the American Geophysical Union meeting in December, just before speakers
took the stage for a plenary session, my fellow climate scientist Peter
Kalmus and I unfurled a banner that read, ''Out of the lab & into the
streets.''
In the few seconds before the banner was ripped from our hands, we implored
our colleagues to use their leverage as scientists to wake the public upto
the dying planet.
SOON after the brief action, the A.G.U., an organization with 60,000 members
in the earth and space sciences, expelled us from the conference and
withdrew the research that we presented that week from the program.
Eventually it began a professional misconduct inquiry. {It's ongoing.}
Then on Jan. 3, Oak Ridge, the laboratory outside Knoxville where I had
worked as an associate scientist for one year, terminated my employment. I
am the first earth scientist I know of to be fired for climate activism. I
fear I will not be the last.
Oak Ridge said it was forced to fire me because I misused government
resources by engaging in a personal activity on a work trip and because I
did not adhere to its code of business ethics and conduct.
The code has points on scientific integrity, maintaining the institution's
reputation and using government resources ''only as authorized and
appropriate and with integrity, responsibility and care.''
The retaliation I faced from the A.G.U, and Oak Ridge ultimately highlights
a disappointing reality : that established scientific institutions will not
even support scientists interrupting a meeting for the climate. I'm all for
decorum, but not when it will cost us the earth.
I USED to be a well-behaved scientist. I stood quietly on melting permafrost
in Utqiagvik, Alaska, and measured how much greenhouse gas was released into
the atmosphere. I filled spreadsheets and ran simulations about how warming
temperatures would increase the carbon emissions from soil.
To do my job, I dissociated the data I was working with from the terrifying
future it represented. But in the field, smelling the dense rot of New
England hemlock trees that were being eaten by a pest that now survives the
warming winters, I felt loss and dread.
Only my peers read my articles, which didn't seem to have any tangible
effects. Though I saw firsthand the oncoming catastrophe of climate change,
I felt powerless to help.
I did, however, believe that if scientists told the truth about the climate
change emergency, our scientific institutions would get the message to
policymakers, government officials, the media and the public. But they
didn't - at least not sufficiently - even as carbon emissions continued to
rise and the climate continued to warm.
A few years ago, Scientists Rebellion, an international network of
scientists concerned about climate change, began a series of strategic acts
of nonviolent civil disobedience. After years of waiting in vain for
meaningful public action to address climate change, I decided to join them.
The scientific community has tried writing dutiful reports for decades, with
no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels to show for it.
It is time to try something new. We must work to change the culture of our
institutions, be honest about our values, advocate climate justice and
experiment.
Great experiments push at the boundaries of knowledge and propriety. They
are risky, volatile and blasphemous. But when they work, the world changes.
Scientific institutions should support activism and advocacy, especially by
experts. The A.G.U. should do more to publicly support policies informed by
its members' science, such as declaring a climate emergency and
enabling fossil fuel extraction and subsidies.
I did not make the decision to become an activist lightly. I recognized that
my actions would have consequences, and I knew that I could face
retaliation. But inaction during this critical time will have far greater
consequences.
The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on the
Effects of Climate Change on natural and managed ecosystems, continues. The
World Students Society thanks author Scientist Rose Abramoff.
With respectful dedication to Mankind. Leaders, and then Students,
Professors and Teachers of the World. See Ya all prepare and register for
Great Global Elections on The World Students Society :
wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :
Good Night and God Bless
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