that a key principle in science is the need to be objective. In increasingly partisan times, information from scientists needs to be wholly independent and some believe that scientists joining protests could reinforce the belief that scientists are an ‘interest group’, making all scientific data less credible and other researchers’ efforts more easily dismissed.
Bullock disagrees. “Activism doesn’t undermine my independence as a researcher,” he says. “It arises from my independent analysis of the evidence.” For him, “activism is based on the evidence that we are destroying the natural world, and that this evidence is being systematically ignored and underplayed. I have made a rational decision that activism is the only way to get governments and others to take notice of the evidence and act.”
Bullock believes that if more scientists researched the goals and principles of groups such as XR, which are founded on the communication of accurate and impartial information, more might be willing to join. And if they can’t join a direct action group, they should be doing everything they can to improve their sector’s impact. “We [academics] need to reconsider how we run conferences and do research, and from whom we receive funding.”
Knorr believes that recent climate-based activism differs from earlier activities in that for the first time “it has propelled the topic quite a long way up the political list of priorities, similar to the Occupy movement bringing the issue of inequality to the political radar screens. It remains to be seen, though, if the effect will last.”
For Sarah Peters, the decision to partake in activism is simple: she “cannot in good faith stand by, knowing the current and future effects of the climate crisis, and do nothing”.
So, is it time for more scientists to become directly involved with campaigning and activist groups such as XR? This year The Biologist is looking to explore how life scientists are dealing with the existential crises facing the organisms and habitats they study. If you have a view on this topic, we’d love to hear from you.
Emma Wrake AMRSB is editorial assistant at the Royal Society of Biology.
“My activism is based on the evidence that we are destroying the natural world, and that this evidence is being systematically ignored and underplayed”
Professor James Bullock
Vol 67 No 3 / The Biologist / 21