(Image: Andrzej Krauze)
THIS may not be popular. At least not in a magazine like this. But here goes: scientists should take a back seat from now on in public discussions on climate change.
It’s not that the science doesn’t matter. But the heavy lifting has been done. The Nobel prize has been won. We know enough to act. And those who persist in believing that global warming is a myth are unlikely to be convinced by another dose of data.
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What we need are other ways of thinking about our climate future that do not have science centre-stage. Too often, the issue gets pigeon-holed as something for researchers to sort out, with everyone else marginalised. To change that, we need to hear a lot more from artists and lawyers, priests and playwrights, economists and engineers, moralists and financiers, and a lot less from the lab.
Two recent interventions have shown the power of broadening the canvas. The pope’s encyclical on climate change on 18 June didn’t say anything new scientifically. But it used a different language. It raised the ethical stakes, and challenged the often-conservative religious world to step up as stewards of the planet. And for that reason it made headlines worldwide.
A week later, a court in the Netherlands broke new ground by ordering the Dutch government to do more to fight climate change – rising seas pose a particular threat to this low-lying country. The legal challenge had been brought on behalf of 900 citizens. Courts in other countries will hear similar class actions from those whose lives are blighted by climate change.
The divestment movement is gaining strength. It empowers ordinary citizens, who have little say on global greenhouse gas emissions. It gives us a realistic prospect of forcing our university, pension fund or bank to ditch coal or oil investments. The movement works because it shifts the focus away from complex issues and towards simple moral and financial choices.
But we need to hear more from non-scientists. We await the great play, movie or novel on climate change. Something to stir the soul, like John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath did during the US Dust Bowl era. The right artistic contribution could be much more powerful than another report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Of course, climate science must continue. But in public, the dominance of scientists on almost every platform where our climatic future is discussed has become an impediment to progress – stifling rather than encouraging debate.
Scientists have long been told to engage with the public on the great issues of the day. But maybe on this issue, it is time to shut up and let others take the floor.
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This article appeared in print under the headline “Time for a new act”
