There's a huge gap between what climate scientists are willing to say privately and what we're willing to say publicly, in terms of how dire a situation we're in. Colleagues, integrity demands we close this gap.
Scientists aren't holding back on the science in our papers. Why would we? (IPCC summaries are another matter.) But in public it's "Here are some graphs" and the language is constrained. In private over beers it's "We're fucked."
Now I'm not a "doomer." I see a continuum of fucked-ness, and I think decades of inaction mean we're already fucked to some not-great degree, but we can prevent being even more fucked. We can always be more fucked by burning more fossil fuel, and less fucked by burning less.
What I'm saying is that it could be helpful for a large number of scientists to step out of "scientist mode" and speak from the heart. To say "I'm human too and I find this terrifying. I'm deeply concerned that if we fail to act we'll be fucked. Catastrophically fucked."
If you're an Earth scientist and you're scared by what you see and where the Earth system is heading, please say so, in very plain, even vulgar language, and as publicly as you can. What's happening isn't remotely OK and I think we have a duty to let everyone feel it.
