Researchers criticised and gaslighted after telling Guardian of their fears say acknowledging feelings is critical to their work

Researchers criticised and gaslighted after sharing fears with Guardian say acknowledging feelings is critical to their work

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.

  • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
    39·
    10 days ago

    Just from the summary,

    Climate scientists…

    …they had been told they were not qualified to take part in this broad discussion of the climate crisis

    So if climate scientists aren’t qualified to take part in this discussion, just who the fuck is?! That’s a pretty stupid position for anyone.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      141·
      10 days ago

      Reminds me of the endless Republican whining about how you shouldn’t trust experts and should do your own research.

    • Allonzee@lemmy.world
      9·
      10 days ago

      Capitalists, duh.

      Climate scientists aren’t qualified because they don’t prioritize maximizing short term private profit, any expert that matters will tell you that is the only consideration that ever ought to be considered about any topic. That’s what makes them an experts to begin with, obviously.

      This is a problem that needs to be addressed by respected business leaders that understand we can’t disrupt economic growth and quarterly earnings expectations for something as abstract as humanity’s medium to long term survival.

      Civilization may collapse in 20 years from catastrophic ecological collapse, but there’s like 80 quarterly earnings calls between now and then, and if it does collapse, the only people that matter won’t be rich anymore when the glorious dollar is no longer valued, so nothing will matter anymore anyway, problem solved.