Thread by @GastonRijo

A new preprint (zenodo.org/record/7047049) by a team of @ScientistRebel1 members came out today. Here are my two cents on why it is important for you to read it (1/15) 🧵

We, life scientists, should acknowledge that we have failed life on earth, and should take actions to turn the tables. We are everyday being bombarded with news of floods, fires, and other climate disasters. So much that we go numb and don’t care any more. But this is happening.

This is real.

Life scientists from different fields have been documenting the disastrous effects of the climate crisis in detail. From conservation biology to healthcare and agroecology. But documenting is not enough. Knowing is not enough. We need to turn this knowledge into action.

In these same fields, grants, articles, and other scientific literature blatantly ignore the climate crisis, framing research in biology as separated from the rapid changes that have been happening.

Even worse is seeing universities advertising education programs as a way of “improving public health”, or “improving food systems” while in these same programs, the climate crisis is superficially studied, if studied at all.

But even if we had this knowledge imparted onto new students, it would not be enough. As we have seen in recent years, government response is usually more accountable to international economic interests than to the people they are governing. And this is not solved just by voting.

We need to take action.

It is a *moral imperative* for life scientists to take action for climate change. Our studies are without purpose when the future is mass extinction, ecological collapse, and massive death tolls.

Do we really care about human health, as we write in our abstracts, or is it just to publish the next article?

Do we really care about biodiversity?

Do we really care about agriculture?

We propose that academic activities must be viewed in a wider -activist- lens, where each of the core components of academic activity (teaching, outreach, research), should be expanded in ways that allow us to move society into empowering itself for change.

Come join Scientist Rebellion (scientistrebellion.com). Let’s work together to build tangible demands to stop fossil fuel investment, and transition our economic system into *actually* sustainable systems.

Let’s make governments worldwide have no choice but to meet our demands.

Here’s a thread by @FerRacimo unpacking the main points of the article:

https://twitter.com/FerRacimo/status/1566681690751262721

This article was a joint effort from people working in biology, ecology, psychology, public health, and history: @FerRacimo @EliaValentini, @teresalsantos, @AnnaNorb, @lane_atmore, M. Murray, @SanjaHakala, @FrederikAppelO, @CharlieJGardner, @JoolesBH, @FrederikAppelO

(15/15) + 1:
We are planning several direct actions this October in Germany, along with @AufstandLastGen and @DebtforClimate, demanding for a stop in fossil fuel investment #LevelWithUs. We need your support! scientistrebellion.com