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Climate science activism

When climate scientists fear their research isn’t being acted upon, some individuals take matters into their own hands. But are there repercussions for climate activists?

Climate researcher, Rose Abramoff took to the stage at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meetings, not as a guest speaker but in protest. Whilst her demonstration only lasted 15 seconds, she found her employment terminated from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and research stripped from the AGU programme. She was attempting to persuade other climate scientists to ‘get out of the lab and into the street’. Whilst Rose’s protest hit the headlines in the media, potentially less attention was paid to the session that was taking place at the conference, hosted by Mika Tosca, climate scientist-turn-artist, Associate Professor of Liberal Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Roland brings the two together to discuss the event and how climate scientists should approach activism.

Although there is no one solution to the climate crisis, Roland loves a brainstorm on Science in Action. Climate activist Stuart Capstick, a Cardiff University psychologist specialising in public attitudes to environmental issues and environmental scientist Robert Young from Western Carolina University take the conversation one step further. Questioning how public perceptions of scientists change when they take evasive action and protest.

And finally, we usually hear of seismology reports coming from dense, urban areas prone to earthquakes, delicately perched atop of tectonic plates. But this week, Roland speaks to Professor of Geophysics Zhongwen Zhan from the California Institute of Technology, who’s collecting data from a very unusual place...

Image credit: SOPA Images

Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Harrison Lewis

Available now

29 minutes

Last on

Sat 21 Jan 2023 17:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Thu 19 Jan 2023 20:32GMT
  • Thu 19 Jan 2023 21:32GMT
  • Fri 20 Jan 2023 04:32GMT
  • Fri 20 Jan 2023 13:32GMT
  • Fri 20 Jan 2023 18:32GMT
  • Sat 21 Jan 2023 17:32GMT

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