<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/25/we-have-emotions-too-climate-scientists-respond-to-attacks-on-objectivity>
"Climate scientists who were mocked and gaslighted after speaking up about
their fears for the future have said acknowledging strong emotions is vital to
their work.
The researchers said these feelings should not be suppressed in an attempt to
reach supposed objectivity. Seeing climate experts’ fears and opinions about
the climate crisis as irrelevant suggests science is separate from society and
ultimately weakens it, they said.
The researchers said they had been subject to ridicule by some scientists after
taking part in a large
Guardian survey of experts in May, during which they
and many others expressed their feelings of extreme fear about future
temperature rises and the world’s failure to take sufficient action. They said
they had been told they were not qualified to take part in this broad
discussion of the climate crisis, were spreading doom and were not impartial.
However, the researchers said that embracing their emotions was necessary to do
good science and was a spur to working towards better ways of tackling the
climate crisis and the rapidly increasing damage being done to the world. They
also said that those dismissing their fears as doom-laden and alarmist were
speaking frequently from a position of privilege in western countries, with
little direct experience of the effects of the climate crisis.
The three experts have published a comment article in the journal
Nature
Climate Change, titled
Scientists have emotional responses to climate change
too. They said that, at a point when the climate crisis has already arrived
and the key questions are how to limit and survive it, their aim in speaking
out was to start a discussion about how climate experts across all disciplines
can best communicate the urgency needed with the public.
Pretending to be a “robot” is bad science, said Dr Shobha Maharaj, an author of
the
Nature article from the University of Fiji. “The basic definition of
science is to take all parameters into consideration. If you pretend your
emotions don’t exist, then you’re not looking at the big picture.”
She added: “Scientists have generally been very cautious with how they
communicate, and where has that gotten us right now. I’m not saying that we
should just flare up into a frenzy and say ‘Oh my God, this is the end’. But
being honest and candid about the truth should never be hidden.”
Prof Lisa Schipper from the University of Bonn, who is also an author of the
article, said: “As social scientists, we are very much aware that there is no
such thing as neutral or unbiased [science] – you just have to take steps to
make sure that your bias doesn’t take over.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
