“Climate research delays climate action”

2024-10-29 11:00:00

ANDIn 2023, I left a promising position as a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, when I realized that academic science was not only ineffective in the face of climate change, but could also help delay action on climate change.

Working as an oceanographer was exhilarating: weeks at sea on large research ships, with instruments and robots to examine the farthest reaches of our planet. All of these expeditions were undertaken in hopes of contributing to the vast field of ocean science that goes hand in hand with understanding climate. Between producing most of the atmospheric oxygen, sequestering most of the atmospheric carbon dioxide, and regulating heat transport on the planet, Our oceans are the main determinants of the Earth’s climate.

Like most of my fellow oceanographers, I was motivated to become a professor to help alleviate the climate crisis. However, as idealistic as most academic scientists may be, they cannot escape their increasingly private and resource-driven institutions. University sciences are torn, on the one hand, by the desire to act on global warming and, on the other, by the need to obtain research funding. Researchers have developed the science of climate change at the expense of finding solutions.

Technological solutionism

To receive funds, they sell ideas to financiers : governments, industrial partners or philanthropic organizations. Scientists must make these ideas acceptable to society. A great way to do this is to include science in the evolution of our climate.

But this becomes problematic quite quickly. First, university research stagnates due to its dependence on public funding, the direction of which is at the mercy of government agencies that often harbor climate skeptics. Second, flashy, technologically rich ideas that promise quick fixes are often funded at the expense of projects that have local implications or are based on long-term issues.

The term “technosolutionism” has been used to describe this type of research, in which the focus is on future innovations that could reduce emissions, rather than tackling the climate emergency. Technological solutionism is often favored by start-ups or venture capitalists. This dangerous movement recognizes the reality of global warming but delays decision-making and, effectively, blocks climate action.