The scientists who’ve been researching and writing about it for decades are finally fed up with giving us the data only to have us ignore it all. So now a growing group of scientists are rebelling in the streets, with acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. They’ve formed “Scientist Rebellion” (SR), which works within the framework of Extinction Rebellion (XR). The majority of their members are scientists or academics from a wide variety of scientific backgrounds from all around the world. The group was formed in September 2020 and they’ve already got some widely publicized, dramatic, and illegal operations under their belt. All acts of civil disobedience are non-violent and no harm comes to anyone, but there have been plenty of police present at all sites and dozens of arrests, including that of Dr Peter Kalmus, renowned climate scientist and passionate climate action communicator.
The co-founder of Scientific Rebellion is Dr Tim Hewlett, and he’s not minced words about the reason for SR coming into being. Essentially, he cites the last 30 years of IPCC work as a, quote, “unmitigated failure” end quote, of scientists to effectively do anything about the existential crisis which is torpedoing towards us. Everything the scientific community has been doing – research, report, rinse and repeat – has been consistently falling on deaf ears. So he took it upon himself to rally a group of increasingly frustrated peers to put their bodies on the line and participate in civil disobedience.
Learn more in the latest video from the Hive!
