Story at a glance
- Hundreds of scientists took part in protests across the globe to call for urgency in addressing climate change.
- Over 1,000 scientists took part in protests in more than 25 countries this past week.
- The protests come in the wake of a UN report stating humanity only has three more years to curb greenhouse gas emissions and avoid more severe climate disasters.
Hundreds of scientists from around the world took part in protests last week to apply pressure on government agencies to make “rapid and deep” cuts to greenhouse gas emissions before it’s too late.
In London, 25 scientists glued pages of scientific papers, along with their hands, to the windows of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to force the agency to look at the climate research they say the British government has been ignoring, The Guardian reported.
In Madrid, over 50 protesters were arrested after taking to the streets and throwing fake blood on the steps of the Spanish Parliament’s Congress of Deputies.
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In Los Angeles, NASA scientist Peter Kalmus and three other people were arrested on Wednesday after they chained themselves to the front door of a Chase Bank building in protest of the company’s investment in fossil fuels.
“We’ve been trying to warn you guys for so many decades that we’re heading towards a f—— catastrophe, and we’ve been being ignored,” said Kalmus, Business Insider reported. “The scientists of the world are being ignored, and it’s got to stop. We’re not joking. We’re not lying. We’re not exaggerating.”
Kalmus and his fellow protesters were met with 100 LAPD officers in riot gear and arrested, according to Salon.
The protests were part of a week of civil disobedience organized by Scientist Rebellion, the scientific branch of the climate change activist group Extinction Rebellion.
More than 1,000 scientists from over 25 countries took part in the protests to highlight the findings from a United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report stating humanity only has three more years to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The report states that “rapid and deep” cuts to greenhouse gas emissions are needed by 2025 to keep the planet below 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming and avoid the most severe climate disasters.
If nothing is done to curb emissions by 2025, greenhouse gas emissions will cause a median global warming temperature of 3.2 degrees Celsius by 2100, according to the report.
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