Features
How scientists feel about climate change: Dr Sarah Perkins
Everything that Dr Sarah Perkins feared about climate change is beginning to happen and she questions why people have been ignoring the signs in a letter explaining her view on how the world is changing.
Blue & Green Tomorrow is currently running a crowdfunder to ensure its survival. Please pledge.
The letter forms part of a project that asked scientists from across Australia to write a handwritten note about how they feel about climate change. The letters have been published on website http://isthishowyoufeel.weebly.com/. Perkins is a climate scientists and extreme weather events specialists at the University of New South Wales and urges action.
She writes:
For some time now I’ve been terribly worried. I wish I didn’t have to acknowledge it, but everything I have feared is happening. I used to think I was paranoid, but it’s true. She’s slipping away from us. She’s been showing signs of acute illness for quite a while, but no one has really done anything. Her increased erratic behaviour is something I’ve especially noticed. Certain behaviours that were only rare occurrences are starting to occur more often, and with heightened anger. I’ve tried to highlight these changes time and time again, as well as their speed of increase, but no one has paid attention.
It almost seems everyone has been ignoring me completely, and I’m not sure why. Is it easier to pretend there’s no illness, hoping it will go away? Or because they’ve never had to live without her, so the thought of death is impossible? Perhaps they cannot see they’ve done this to her. We all have.
To me this is all false logic. How can you ignore the severe sickness of someone you are so intricately connected to and dependent upon. How can you let your selfishness and greed take control, and not protect and nurture those who need it most? How can anyone not feel an overwhelming sense of care and responsibility when those so dear to us are so desperately ill? How can you push all this to the back of your mind? This is something I will The thing is we
To read the rest of the submissions to Is This How You Feel?, click here.
Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre via Flickr
Further reading:
How scientists feel about climate change: Prof Tony McMichael
How scientists feel about climate change: Prof Katrin Meissner
How scientists feel about climate change: Prof Lesley Hughes
How scientists feel about climate change: Alex sen Gupta
How scientists feel about climate change: Prof Brendan Mackey