🚨“Actions speak louder than words”

I’m thrilled to announce @TristramWyatt, @CharlieJGardner & my new paper in @RSocPublishing 'Open Science'

In this paper we set out our case for responsible scientific activism in an era of planetary emergency.

A short🧵 2/ We argue that scientists & scientific institutions can have the maximum amount of influence by lending their support to social movements pressing for action, joining as active participants & considering civil disobedience.

#Science #ClimateEmergency
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…

This weeks #ClimateCrisis news:

Hundreds of #Hajj pilgrims have died from heat stress in Mecca as temperatures in Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 soar.

Here's a short🧵putting this in context & asking what comes next…

2/ Temperatures measured at the Grand Mosque in #Mecca reached 51.8C in the shade, an all time record high for the city 🌡️🥵

One thing I wished more people understood about climate change is that we have not yet experienced any where near the full consequences of the warming we've already caused.

Here's a 🧵 explaining why... 2/ As the planet warms we see extreme events become far more common, a heatwave that used to have a 1% chance of happening in any year, becomes a 10% chance.

That is the return period is reduced massively.

🚨Stop Scrolling!

Let's pause & reflect a minute about what this shocking picture of @GretaThunberg 's arrest tells us about the current state of #climate politics.

A short 🧵on some key lessons we can take from this image 2/
What a difference 6 years makes!

In many ways climate politics is in a very different place to how it was when @GretaThunberg first started her strikes outside the Swedish parliament in the summer of 2018 to try and put the #ClimateCrisis on the agenda

This weeks #ClimateCrisis news:

After months of low rainfall and record heat, Mexico City 🇲🇽, home to 22 million people, is rapidly running out of water! #DayZero

Here's a short🧵putting this in context & asking what comes next…

2/ Last year was both the warmest *and* driest year on record in Mexico 🇲🇽

https://twitter.com/conagua_clima/status/1755283144985710755

This weeks #ClimateCrisis news:

#Chile 🇨🇱 declares a state of #Emergency as devastating #wildfires currently sweep the center of the country.

Here's a short🧵 putting this in context & asking what comes next...

Over 100 people have been killed.

Hundreds more are missing.

Thousands of homes damaged or destroyed.

Tens of thousands of hectares burned.

2/n

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1754233923737940357

🚨 When we fight, we win!

I've put together a thread giving a quick run down of some of the #climate movement's hard won victories from 2023 to inspire us for the year ahead! 🥳🎉

🧵 1/x...

#ClimateActionNow
#EndFossilFuels January: After a persistent pressure from campaigners over many years the Royal Opera final cut its ties with BP!

Brilliant work by all those fighting for #FossilFreeCulture

https://twitter.com/Cult_Unstained/status/1618590520628088835

Fossil fuel emissions 🛢⛽️🔥

⬆️ set to reach record breaking highs in 2023

Which leads to...

🧵 1/4 ⬆️ Record breaking levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Which leads to...

🧵 2/4

🚨“No research on a dead planet”

I’m thrilled to announce @LauraLoHorn, @PHellermann, @CharlieJGardner & my new paper in @FrontEducation.

Why, despite acknowledging the urgency of climate emergency, have universities yet to respond adequately to the crisis?

A short🧵 2/ Thousands of higher education institutions have made climate emergency declarations, however most academics are still operating as if nothing has changed.

Our paper asks - why does such a knowledge-action gap persist?

It's open access:
frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

1/ I'm horrified by the news of mass evacuations from #Yellowknife due to the #wildfires🔥

I used conduct research in the area & it was after a talk with a volunteer firefighter there that I decided to leave ecological science & focus on #climate action.

Here's why🧵

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1692114089030422556

2/ The #Arctic is warming about 3X faster than the rest of the globe as a result of #GlobalWarming from burning fossil fuels.

As a result we're seeing major changes in Northern ecosystems - including a dramatic increase in #wildfire🔥 :

https://twitter.com/ThierryAaron/status/1655480625489477633

1/ The most common question I get asked when I give talks about the #ClimateCrisis is "but what can I do as an individual?"

Here's my answer... 🧵 2/

NOTHING.

We *cannot* address the #ClimateCrisis as individuals.

The crisis is a symptom of a system of social relations, and therefore we must cooperate to *collectively* change that form of social organization.

Its wild!

As the reality becomes starker the denial deepens ever further 🧵

News: Opinion:

2/🧵

News: Opinion:

1/ The penny is finally starting to drop that economists have catastrophicly underestimated the risk from #ClimateBreakdown.

Here's a🧵 of the latest reports that those working in finance urgently need to catch up on...

Starting with @ChathamHouse:

chathamhouse.org/2023/07/climat… @ChathamHouse 2/ "The stark disconnect between climate science and financial market sentiment will eventually end. It looks increasingly likely to be a sudden and painful adjustment."

chathamhouse.org/2023/07/climat…

1/ This is the UK's Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

He's bullshitting you.

Let's debunk his nonsense line by line...🧵

https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1682715387476189184

2/ There are three claims that Shapps is making in his video.

All are false.

That stopping new North Sea licencing would mean:

1. Oil & gas use will have to halt immediately.

2. This would mean increasing imports from corrupt regimes.

3. This would increase carbon emissions.

1/ Here's a🧵on why the record shattering extremes in Europe are so unsettling for climate scientists.

It's increasingly looking that we've underestimated the impacts of #ClimateBreakdown...

https://twitter.com/WxNB_/status/1681324727812468736

2/ In a climate that isn't changing the probability of recording an extreme in any one year decreases with the length of the time series.

The 1st year has to be a record, the 2nd year its 50:50, the third year 1/3 & so on.

Setting a new record becomes rarer as time goes on.

Five books you might like to read when asking what you can do about the #ClimateEmergency🧵

1. @ClimatePsych's excellent guide for turning anxiety into action 2. @swaziadam's awesome introductory textbook.

If I were teaching a course on the climate crisis I'd assign this as the core text.

I got the chills reading @GeorgeMonbiot's latest column on the draconian police powers of the new ‘Public Order Bill’.

But to understand how we got here we need to take a step back and look at the way these laws have been called into being. It's a wild story🤯

🧵 @GeorgeMonbiot 2/ Let's start in May 2019:

Following @XRebellionUK's actions in London- in which thousands of peaceful protestors engaged in the largest acts of civil disobedience in the UK for a generation- Parliament declares a #ClimateEmergency.

A key demand of the protestors had been met

1/ Yet again @NickFerrariLBC shows he's extremely ill informed.

As anyone familiar with the facts knows, the activists' demands are entirely consistent with mainstream science, yet Nick is too lazy to inform himself.

So here's a🧵laying it out for him:

https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1648315713507979265

2/ Just last month hundreds of the UKs leading scientists made clear that:

"The UK should commit to preventing any new oil & gas field development."

Are they 'intellectually nuts" @NickFerrariLBC?

zero.cam.ac.uk/who-we-are/blo…

The @OECD: "current scientific evidence unequivocally supports unprecedented, urgent and ambitious climate action to tackle the risks of climate system tipping points."

https://twitter.com/OECD_ENV/status/1598640430970802178

@OECD "Tipping points impacts will also cascade through socio-economic and ecological systems over timeframes that are short enough to defy the ability & capacity of human societies to adapt, leading to severe effects on human and natural systems"

The KEY question, I'm asked by students when I guest lecture about the #ClimateCrisis is 'but what can we do?'

So I recently rewrote my materials to try & tackle that question head on. Feel free to adapt them.

Buckle up - here's a LONG thread🧵about how we can fight back! First, let's just recap and take in where we are:

Following the latest @IPCC_CH report @UN Secretary General @antonioguterres made clear this was a
🚨"Code Red for humanity"🚨 2/n

This time last year I was one of 21 scientists arrested at #COP26 for a peaceful protest with @ScientistRebel1

Here's a clip of a very wet ☔️ me explaining the reason I took part in the action 💚

A year later & governments are still failing #COP27

@ScientistRebel1 You can read more about the action in this @Nature article ...

“We believe this is the first ever mass arrest of scientists over the climate crisis" - @CharlieJGardner

nature.com/articles/d4158…