Earlier this month, in Environmental Research Letters, a study was published comparing the personal climate actions of just under 9200 scientists from 115 countries (1). The study’s authors split them into two groups – those who are techno-optimists and those who are not – and asked them what they were doing, personally, to combat climate change.
As the report’s authors put it, techno-optimists believe “that technology will largely solve climate change and its consequences.” 27% of the surveyed scientists fit into this group. 44% reported the belief that technology will not rescue us. The remaining 29% did not express strong opinions either way.
Not surprisingly, techno-optimists reported taking fewer actions to combat climate change than those who felt that technology will be insufficient to meet the crisis.
That said, the differences found were less stark than one might expect. While it’s true that techno-optimists were 23% and 19% less likely than other scientists to engage in civic climate action and to make high impact lifestyle changes, respectively, members of both groups were found to be doing quite a lot.
Here are some of the numbers:
43% of techno-optimists report having reduced the flying they do.
57% of the other scientists are doing the same.
62% of the techno-optimists have reduced the amount of driving they do.
74% of the other scientists have done so.
31% of the techno-optimists report adopting largely vegetarian or vegan diets
45% of the remaining scientists have done the same.
All of these numbers are far higher than are seen in the general population!taking action to reduce global warming.
Clearly, scientists, as a group, better understand the importance of fighting global warming than does the general public. And they’re taking action.
Why not follow them? It’s time for us all to act as if we’re in the existential crisis that we are in. So many of these scientists are leading the way, albeit too quietly.
Simply following them on the three points listed above – to the maximum extent that we can – would dramatically improve our collective future.
- https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aea4c7
