Accurate climate activists face prison, while their incorrect critics face… a pay rise?

What I have really valued, but also taken for granted over the years, is how my leadership courses have always been attended by a mix of people, brought together by a shared concern for being their best selves in an era of disruption and collapse. There have been climate activists, scientists, NGO officials and government officials in the room, or the zoom room, exploring sensitive issues together. It has been clear how much they are able to learn from each other. That contrasts with the way many top climatologists appear in the media, and on social media, to assume themselves to know everything that matters. That has led many over the years to casually disdain activists in various ways. The inconvenient truth they now need to face is that the activists are turning out to have been better at reading what was salient from the climate science than them, the salaried experts. Might some humility ensue? Or perhaps some curiosity about what creates such dangerous reticence amongst senior scientists and science bureaucrats? Maybe. But I’m not holding my breath.

Today an open letter from 70 scholars from 16 countries is released that supports climate activists and explains how unhelpful it has been for climate scientists to have undermined them in recent years. It calls for public apologies. That is important because many of these activists are now facing years in prison for peaceful protests. Do you think it helped their case to be portrayed as extremists who were wrong on the science? Hardly. Please read an open letter from international scholars.

The letter references an extremely important public letter from the cofounders of Extinction Rebellion, which I strongly recommend you read: Telling the truth so we can learn from mistakes – reflections five years on.

Please send these letters to your colleagues and any contacts you have in the media.

Please also share them on social media.

Next week, in a guest blog, my co-tutor on the “leading through collapse” courses I teach, Katie Carr, will be offering her reflections on leadership in times like these.

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