Reports about melting glaciers, rising sea levels and heat-related deaths: “It's hard to face up to it,” says Prof. Dr. Lisa Schipper. She is also depressed about how people and ecosystems are suffering from climate change. As a scientist, she was involved in the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She took part in a survey of IPCC climate researchers conducted by the British daily newspaper “The Guardian”. This revealed how concerned many of them are about the consequences of climate change.
Following the publication of the Guardian article, criticism rained down, including from within the community of climate researchers: It is not helpful to express emotions in science, they said. Lisa Schipper disagrees: “The importance of emotions in science is overlooked.” This is why she recently published a commentary in the renowned journal “Nature Climate Change” together with other scientists on the topic “ Scientists have emotional responses to climate change too ”.
In the new episode of the Hypothesis Podcast, Prof. Dr. Lisa Schipper discusses the thesis “Science needs facts, not emotions” with host Denis Nasser. You can hear whether the scientist verifies (confirms as true) or falsifies (refutes) it: https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/news/science-needs-facts-not-emotions
Text from the news on the University of Bonn website