If you’re a movie buff, you would’ve probably watched ‘Don’t Look Up’ by now, a movie about the extents 2 astronomers had to go to in order to warn mankind of an approaching comet that would destroy the planet.
But this isn’t a movie, this is real life.
NASA climate scientist and author, Dr. Peter Kalmus was arrested on 6 April (Wednesday) after he protested the inaction against climate change by chaining himself to the JP Morgan Chase bank in Los Angeles, United States.
He, and 3 other scientists, chose to chain themselves in protest at the location due to the bank’s highest involvement in funding fossil fuel companies. They allegedly contributed a whopping $382 billion (RM1,617,388,000,000.00) to the industry from 2016 to 2021.Â
In a video that has since gone viral online, Dr. Kalmus tearfully emphasized that “we’re gonna lose everything“, sparking the #LetTheScientistBeHeard and #LetTheEarthBreathe movements on Twitter.
“I’m here because scientists are not being listened to. I’m willing to take a risk for this gorgeous planet, for my sons. And we’ve been trying to warn you guys for so many decades, that we’re heading towards a f*cking catastrophe,”
“And we end up being ignored, the scientists of the world are being ignored. And it’s got to stop. We’re going to lose everything. And we’re not joking. We’re not lying, we’re not exaggerating. This is so bad, everyone, that we’re willing to take this risk,” he shared as he attempted to hold back his tears.
Wildlife biologist, Allan Chornack, who was also protesting at the scene added, “And we’re tired of being ignored. We tried being unbiased. We tried being silent. We have tried the policy game. We have tried celebrities.”
“We have tried EVERYTHING.”
Over 1,000 scientists from 26 countries risked getting arrested by joining their protest to in an effort to be heard.Â
Dr. Kalmus also shared on how we should heed his warning and we can start by sharing his sense of urgency on this matter.
“It’s not just a question of learning how to do it, it’s a question of how much panic we feel that motivates us to do it,”
“For example, long haul flights. We don’t know how to decarbonise those yet. But if we were genuinely panicking about climate breakdown, we’d probably choose to stop flying. We’d say, like, livable planet on 1 hand and fly to Europe on the other hand. We’d probably pick a livable planet if we truly thought that this was an emergency,” he said.
Just talking about it won’t create real change, society needs to act.
“I’m hoping a lot more people all around the world, in all walks of life – scientists, artists, historians, corporate leaders, anyone, I hope – can start engaging in climate disobedience because that’s I think the antidote to this sort of global societal bystander effect that I think has been blocking action,”
“Once the public really wakes up, out elected leaders are actually like the followers, right? If the public is demanding real climate action and fast, then that’ll force elected leaders to either act on climate change quickly or directly,” he added.
And if we’re going to do it, we have to do it FAST.Â
“Another thing that the public needs to know is that the damage that is being done back to Earth life support systems right now is effectively irreversible,”
“The timescales for fixing the damage are so long, they’re like longer than the U.S. has been around, longer than the Roman Empire has been around, some of them are longer than humans have been around. If your house is burning, you don’t sit there and ponder – you’re not like, we’ll call the fire department in 2050,” Dr. Kalmus explained.
If you need any more motivation and fear to take this issue seriously, you can watch Dr. Kalmus’s video here:
I'm grateful we tried. Man, oh, man, did we try. pic.twitter.com/TlYrwwGB8v
— Peter Kalmus (@ClimateHuman) April 11, 2022
What do you think about this? Let us know in the comment section.
Also read: What If The Covid-19 Virus Was Meant To Wipe Out The Human Race?
