Scientists Beg for Change
May 2, 2022
Following the release of a new climate report by the United Nations, over a thousand scientists began protesting worldwide in order to bring attention to and call for the need for change in how we as a planet deal with the looming threat of irreversible climate change. Among these protesters was Dr. Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. Following an emotional speech outside of a Chase Bank in LA stating that, “We are currently heading directly towards civilizational collapse. We need to switch into climate emergency mode as a society”, he and three others (a physicist, an engineer and a science teacher) were all arrested by Los Angeles police officers outfitted in riot gear.
You may be wondering, why choose to protest outside of a Chase Bank? Its parent firm, JPMorgan Chase, has invested over three hundred and sixteen billion dollars from 2016 to 2020 into fossil fuels, the most out of any other banking firm. And it’s not just Chase. The world’s largest banks have invested 2.7 trillion dollars into fossil fuel industries since the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to the Banking on Climate Change 2020 report, which tracked data on 35 private financial institutions
This massive protest, organized by the Scientist Rebellion took place from April 4th to April 9th. Protests occurred in 25 countries all over the world, with their main chant being, “1.5ºC is dead. Climate revolution now!” referring to the point in which climate change would become irreversible.
The Scientist Rebellion is a group of “activists from a variety of scientific backgrounds, calling on our communities to stand in resistance to the genocidal direction of our governments, before it’s too late”, as quoted from the about page on their website. They believe that all people, scientists or not, should be fighting against climate change.
Works Cited:
https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-risk-arrest-in-global-climate-protests-2022-4
https://scientistrebellion.com/sr-strikes-occupations/
