- cross-posted to:
- BoycottUnitedStates@europe.pub
- cross-posted to:
- BoycottUnitedStates@europe.pub
The massive changes in US research brought about by the new administration of President Donald Trump are causing many scientists in the country to rethink their lives and careers. More than 1,200 scientists who responded to a Nature poll — three-quarters of the total respondents — are considering leaving the United States following the disruptions prompted by Trump. Europe and Canada were among the top choices for relocation.
The trend was particularly pronounced among early-career researchers. Of the 690 postgraduate researchers who responded, 548 were considering leaving; 255 of 340 PhD students said the same.
I have answered this poll myself; this is meant for scientists of all career-stages, so a lot of PhD students and postdocs along with faculty members.
I don’t think the article is paywalled, but let me know if it is.
This is not how climate science works.
Everything we’re doing is “later than we should have done it”, but nothing is ever “too late to make a difference.”
The climate isn’t a lightswitch, and it’s not a bomb with a count down timer. Everything we do to improve the situation reduces the amount of total suffering that will result from anthropogenic climate change.
The notion that there is a point of no return beyond which our efforts are useless is very popular… With oil and gas executives. The “It’s too late” message is being pushed heavily by people who want to keep polluting.
In reality, it’s like getting into a car crash. Even if you brake too late to avoid the impact, braking still reduces the severity of the impact. Everything we do to reduce our carbon impact (as a species) will save lives. We are past the point of avoiding any harm at all, but we can still reduce the harm that occurs and hasten the point where we begin to restore our climate to a healthy state.
Yeah my point is we have 4 years of an EPA thats gonna let everything be dumped into the environment. We can’t afford to go backwards right now. We aren’t getting into a crashing car and just not braking, we’re smashing the accelerator is the problem. Trump is gonna fuck the environment by repealing any and all regulation with that “special help line”. And yeah, it will probably just be US that turns into a toxic dump. But it will still suck.
Yes, it will suck, and people will die as a result. A lot of people. We’re still not remotely prepared for the scale of human misery climate change is going to inflict.
But it’s important to be clear about the distinction between “This will make things much, much worse” and “This will destroy any chance of things getting better.”
The latter is the message oil and gas execs want you to be spreading. Don’t do their dirty work for them.
We needed to be prosecuting the biggest polluters 30 years ago. Now they are prosecuting climate supporters, literally the opposite of what we need. Countries are turning to autocracy. The UK is arresting climate protestors. Its just not looking like its going to get better. And its definitely not getting better in the US where I reside.