Extreme concern and high level of commitment

Scientists across all disciplines are extremely concerned about climate change. Many have already changed their lifestyles or engaged in awareness-raising and protest actions, and many more are planning to do so in the future.

This is the result of a large-scale survey of scientists around the world conducted by an international research team led by the University of Amsterdam. The researchers not only looked at scientists’ views and their level of engagement in climate action, but also at ways to increase scientists’ involvement in the fight against climate change.

The research was published Monday, August 5, in the journal Nature Climate change.

“Climate change is an existential threat to humanity,” says Fabian Dablander, postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at the UvA and one of the lead authors of the study.

“To ensure a sustainable future, each of us must ask ourselves: what is the best way to contribute at this crucial moment in human history? Scientists are well placed to contribute to the fight against climate change beyond academic research. However, little is known about their broader engagement on this issue. That is why we conducted our study, in which we conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses of a survey of more than 9,000 researchers from all scientific disciplines, not just climate science.”

Fundamental and personal

Most respondents (83%) say they are “somewhat” or “very” concerned about climate change. The vast majority (91%) believe that fundamental changes in social, political and economic systems are needed to truly address climate change.

Most respondents (84%) also believe that significant changes in their personal behaviour and lifestyle are needed. Many say they have already made significant changes to their lifestyle, such as driving less (69%), flying less (51%) and adopting a more plant-based diet (39%).

Willingness to commit

The majority of scientists surveyed believe that climate activist groups can bring about positive change and should become more involved in climate advocacy, including protests. A significant share of respondents are already engaged in climate advocacy (29%), have participated in legal protests (23%), and/or have even taken part in civil disobedience actions (10%), and about half say they would be willing to engage in some of these activities in the future.

Breaking the barriers

Using these data, Dablander and colleagues then investigated the factors that predict scientists’ engagement in advocacy and protest actions. They propose a two-stage model of engagement.

First, for scientists to be willing to engage, they must overcome essentially intellectual barriers such as lack of belief in the effectiveness of actions, lack of identification with activists, lack of knowledge, fear of losing credibility, and fear of repercussions.

Second, to truly engage, they must overcome largely practical barriers such as a perceived lack of skills, lack of time, lack of opportunities and not knowing groups involved in climate action.

Based on their two-step model, the researchers propose ways to increase scientist engagement, such as facilitating interactions between scientists who are already engaged and those who are not, and making institutional reforms, such as providing more time and money for climate-related actions or rewarding public engagement.

Wake up call

“Governments and businesses continue to make empty promises that downplay the level of transformation needed to prevent climate change,” said Adam Aron, a professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego, and co-author of the study.

“This study clearly shows that scientists across all disciplines are very concerned and are calling for this fundamental transformation. I hope it will help wake people up and get them involved – more and more scientists are doing this.”

About the survey

In their study, the researchers surveyed the scientific community by sending targeted emails to more than 250,000 academics. The more than 9,000 scientists who ultimately responded to the survey came from 115 countries, across all academic disciplines, and at all career stages.

The researchers acknowledge the possibility that scientists already involved in climate change were more likely to participate in the survey, which could affect the extent to which the reported percentages are representative of the scientific community as a whole.