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tions necessary to stop greenhouse

gases from rising,” s aid Glavovic, a n

IPCC contributing author. “The

problem l ies in the political s phere,

so what can the IPCC do to enable

the d ecisions to be made?”

To be sure, the IPCC has been

“stunningly effective,” he added,

especially at raising public con-

sciousness. But with the science

long settled, the IPCC has made

itself “redundant,” Glavovic said.

“We don’t have enough time” for

another report.

After multiple rejections, the

piece ran in December 202 1, but

its call for a strike did not win

many converts. “I can understand

why they took up that perspec-

tive,” Boykoff said. “But y ou’re just

self-censoring at a time when we

need to be more v ocal.”

Other researchers said it “fun-

damentally” misunderstands how

policymaking worked. “I don’t

think Joe Manchin III is going to

change his mind if science stops

publishing IPCC reports,” said

Zeke Hausfather, a climate scien-

tist and IPCC contributing a uthor,

referring to the senator from West

Virginia w ho has blocked Biden’s

climate bill. “It misdiagnoses the

problem.”

But L isa Schipper, an I PCC l ead

coordinating author who co-edits

the journal Climate and Develop-

ment, s aid the o p-ed tapped i nto a

broader “rumbling” about the

group’s role “bridging science to

the solutions,” given the alarming

rate of warming, “We’re in a place

where something has to give. It

can’t c ontinue like this.”

Last year, an academic journal

issued a call for papers titled

“IPCC: dinosaur or dynamo for

climate action?” to discuss how to

make its findings more r elevant to

climate action. That’s g oing to be a

challenge, given that one of t he

IPCC’s core tenets dictates that its

l anguage cannot be policy -

prescriptive.

As w orld leaders continue to stall

in the midst of more extreme sum-

mer fires and drought, scientists

will “absolutely” engage in further

disruption, Abramoff predicted.

“A s you see an escalation in

climate activism o ver t ime, I think

you’re going to see an escalation o f

SR over time,” she said. “Project-

ing is my s pecialty.”

politics & the Nation

BY CASEY QUACKENBUSH

As Rose Abramoff chained her-
self to the White House fence, she
was more worried about securing
the lock than getting arrested. Po-
lice milled around on t he morning
of April 6 and she had to act fast.
Wearing a lab coat, the 3 5-year-old
scientist quickly thread a chain
through the fence and around her
waist three times, then secured it
with a padlock. Meanwhile, four
other protesters shackled them-
selves beside her. One pair locked
arms through a PVC tube while
another bike-locked her neck to
the f ence. “That was p retty metal,”
Abramoff said.
Within 10 minutes, police were
on the scene. With bolt cutters and
a circular saw, the police broke
through and took Abramoff and
the others away. Two days later,
Abramoff returned f or another cli-
mate p rotest, this t ime b lockading
Interstate 395 in D.C. She was
arrested, once again, wearing her
lab c oat.
“It’s important for [scientists]
to say, ‘It’s true. It’s not a fantasy.
These [climate activists] are not
extremists,’ ” said Abramoff, a cli-
mate change and soil scientist
based in Knoxville, Tenn., who
withheld her institution because
her employer does not want to be
affiliated with her activism.
“They’re kind o f the only sane o nes
as far a s I can tell.”
As time runs out for the planet
to avert a future of climate chaos,
scientists around the world are
throwing down the gauntlet. Cli-
mate c hange science has been set-
tled for decades, yet policymakers
have yet to take sweeping action,
and greenhouse gas emissions
continue to climb to record highs.
Climate scientists began t o public-
ly make policy recommendations
based on their research in the late
’80s, and their warnings have be-
come increasingly strident. In
April, the U.N. Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change said
emissions must peak by 2025 to
avoid catastrophic consequences.
Now this inaction is driving
some scientists to engage in civil
disobedience, while others are
striking against the IPCC, calling
for a halt of further reports until
governments mobilize. It’s a dire
situation t hat’s taking a toll on the
mental health of scientists, and
raising the question of what cli-
mate advocacy scientists should
engage in as politicians imperil
the p lanet.
“It’s the job of us in the science
community and climate scientists
to communicate what we under-
stand about future projections
and the current climate pledges as
forcefully as possible,” Abramoff
said of h er civil disobedience. “ It i s
not o nly necessary, but i t’s right.”
Abramoff’s actions last month
were part of a global campaign by
Scientist Rebellion (SR), a climate
network of scientists of all stripes
and degrees to partake in nonvio-
lent civil disobedience and de-
mand climate action. In April, the
group mobilized an estimated
1,0 00 scientists in 26 countries to
protest.
When Abramoff joined in De-
cember, the U. S.-Canada chapter
had about 12 members. Since
then, she said, it’s grown to over
100. But it’s n ot just scientists tak-
ing up more radical action. In the
wake of contentious global cli-
mate talks, President Biden’s
stalled climate legislation and the
war in Ukraine, the whole climate
movement is escalating. In Octo-
ber, five activists with the Sunrise
Movement launched a hunger
strike in D.C. Last month, Extinc-
tion Rebellion activists in New
York occupied the lobby of Citi-
group, l eading t o 19 arrests. In t he
United Kingdom, about 40 0 peo-
ple were arrested 900 times for a

slew of direct actions. And at the

end of April, a climate activist

from Colorado named Bruce

Wynn self-immolated o n the s teps

of the Supreme Court a nd died.

“There’s a broader recognition

among professional scientists t hat

the data won’t carry the day,” said

David S. Meyer, a sociology profes-

sor at University of California at

Irvine. “Deep down most scien-

tists operate with this religious

belief that getting the truth out is

what matters. It’s harder and

harder to hold onto that belief.

What do you do when you realize

that you need t o package the truth

with something else in order to

save t he world?”

SR is an offshoot of its sister

movement, Extinction Rebellion

(XR), an international climate

group born in the United King-

dom in 20 18. Behind the scenes,

scientists helped the original or-

ganization translate science into

presentations about the climate

crisis but left the direct action for

the activists — until September

202 0. During the U.N. climate

talks in November, 2 1 activists

with SR blocked the George V

bridge in Glasgow, Scotland, by

chaining their necks t ogether.

“The research is clear. We k now

we’re f-----,” s aid Kyle Topfer, 29, an

environmental scientist based in

Germany and full-time organizer

with SR who was arrested on the

bridge. “Civil disobedience is an

incredibly powerful way of recon-

necting society that doesn’t con-

nect with the t ruth.”

That bridge protest is what in-

spired Abramoff to join t he group.

Over the years, the injustice of t he

climate crisis has left Abramoff

with simmering grief, frustration

and anger, especially at people in

power. In November, Nature pub-

lished a survey of a group of IPCC

authors, which found that 61 per-

cent experienced some degree of

grief, anxiety or other distress be-

cause of c limate change.

Historically, c limate advocacy as

a scientist has been viewed by some

as akin to a scarlet letter, a move

that could jeopardize a researcher’s

credibility or job. Abramoff and

others recognize the risk to their

actions b ut see inaction as far more

consequential.

“The fear of damaging our pro-

fessional reputation and losing

our jobs is a very real fear,” she

said. “Those are fears that I have.

But they’re no longer as large as

my fear of the future that we’re

creating.”

“We are indoctrinated w ith this

sense that we have to stay n eutral,”

Abramoff added. “That causes us

to reject our humanity and sup-

press what we’re thinking and

feeling about our research. I t’s not

healthy a nd it’s n ot fair.”

On the same day that Abramoff

chained herself to the White House

fence, Peter Kalmus, 47, a climate

scientist with NASA, and three oth-

ers were arrested for chaining

themselves to the doors of JPMor-

gan Chase in Los Angeles, the

world’s largest funder of fossil

f uels. While chained to the door,

Kalmus choked up delivering a

speech that went viral. Shortly af-

ter, dozens of r iot police descended

on the bank, which also went viral.

After years of advocacy, the lat-

est IPCC report drove Kalmus to

escalate. Then Biden tapped into

the o il reserves, which l eft Kalmus

feeling frustration, rage and ter-

ror, and cemented his decision.

Across the world, “there’s a re-

markable vacuum of leadership

right now,” he said, adding that

he’s speaking on his own behalf.

The current dissonance between

science and policy is “exactly like

being i n ‘Don’t Look Up,’ ” K almus

added. “It’s such a perfect fit to

what I experience in my day-to-

day life. I actually cried. I w as l ike,

‘Wow, someone else knows what

Temps rise as

climate scientists

escalate a ctivism

Civil disobedience is gaining traction as decades

of political inaction on warming spark frustration

I’m going through.’ ”

Ever since his arrest, Kalmus

has become the most followed cli-

mate scientist on Twitter with

25 2,000 followers, surpassing

prominent climate scientists

Katharine Hayhoe and Michael E.

Mann. Kalmus h as called for more

civil disobedience and “100 per-

cent” wants more scientists to get

involved. He and others said

they’ve received overwhelming

support, a lbeit quiet, for t heir pro-

tests, and invigorated young peo-

ple. But Hayhoe pushes back on

their calls for action.

“I don’t think there’s a o ne-size-

fits-all,” she said. “There’s a full

range and we need scientists at

every point across t hat range.”

Many experts question SR’s im-

pact, which has done little more

than draw media attention.

“Do y ou k now how many people

we’re gonna need in the streets?”

said Dana R. Fisher, an IPCC con-

tributing author who is an expert

on environmental activism and

social movements at the Univer-

sity of Maryland. “It’s way more

than 100 scientists.”

Fisher a rgued that the systemic

forces protesters face — the oil

industry, climate misinformation

and p olitical gridlock — mean that

the mass mobilization needed to

precipitate radical change will

take “some sort of large shock to

the system.” That will most likely

be a climate shock.

Scientists’ engagement in cli-

mate action can be traced back to

1988, w hen f ormer NASA s cientist

James Hansen delivered ground-

breaking testimony to the Senate

about global warming. Frustrated

with U. S. policies, he went on to

get arrested five times at various

environmental protests, once for

zip-tying himself to the White

House fence.

“[Hansen’s] trajectory over the

last 35 years is sort of what’s hap-

pening in the broader scientific

community at warp speed right

now,” Meyer said. “The movement

that you’re seeing now is an intensi-

fication and spread of what’s been

going on for quite a long time.”

In the early 2000 s, Mann and

Hayhoe rose to prominence de-

fending climate science against

skeptics. The Union for Con-

cerned Scientists (UCS) and the

American Association for the Ad-

vancement of Science (AAAS)

started providing engagement re-

sources to scientists.

That s hift accelerated under the

Tr ump administration, whose cli-

mate c hange denial a nd support o f

policies hostile to science drove

tens of t housands to participate i n

the 2017 March for Science and a

36 percent surge in UCS member-

ship. While Hansen accused polit-

ical appointees of muzzling him

under President George W. Bush,

Kalmus has not faced any reper-

cussions a t the same agency.

“The usual approach of writing

a paper, publishing a report and

getting them to the right people is

not the 21st-century model of en-

gagement,” said Maxwell Boykoff,

a social scientist who studies the

cultural politics of climate change

at the University of Colorado at

Boulder and a n IPCC contributing

author. “It’s part of our responsi-

bility to advocate for evidence-

based science. Good lord, it’s part

of the job.”

William Livernois, 26, a PhD

candidate at the University of

Washington, researches biomate-

rials for electronics and was ar-

rested last month for blocking the

entrance to the World Tr ade Cen-

ter in Portland, Ore. Livernois,

who speaks on his own behalf,

asked of scientific research,

“What’s the point of doing this if

civilization c ollapses?”

And it’s not just civil disobedi-

ence. In December, Bruce C.

Glavovic, 61, an environmental

planner and professor at Massey

University in New Zealand, and

two colleagues p ublished a n op-ed

in an academic journal t hat called

for a moratorium on climate

change research a nd IPCC r eports

until g overnments do more. T itled

“The tragedy of climate change

science,” the op-ed describes a sci-

ence-society c ontract, whereby so-

ciety supports science in order to

better understand the world and

inform policies beneficial to soci-

ety. In the case of climate change,

that contract is “irrevocably bro-

ken.”

To r epair it, Glavovic a rgues the

IPCC — a collection o f many o f the

world’s foremost climate re-

searchers, whose reports help

guide negotiations among 195 na-

tions — must radically reconfig-

ure. Now in the midst of its Sixth

Assessment, the group has played

a critical role in establishing au-

thoritative climate science and

getting countries t o commit t o cut-

ting emissions. But its reports,

which take years to craft, do not

dictate policy.

“[Scientists] have fulfilled our re-

sponsibility to provide robust

knowledge that underpins the ac-

RUSSELL CHEYNE/REUTERS

Scientist Rebellion activists chain themselves together in protest of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 6.

Activists and climate scientists have turned to nonviolent civil disobedience as they urge policymakers to take action on global warming.

SUSAN WALSH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

James Hansen, a former NASA scientist and leading researcher on
global warming, gives a climate briefing o n Capitol Hill in 2008.

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