Documentary Reflection
June 29, 2022 By: YANLEZI
With the release of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, researchers around the globe would join a scientist rebellion in April, staging strikes and occupations at universities, research institutions and scientific journals to demand that the community speak out forcefully against continued fossil fuel emissions to highlight “the urgency and injustice of the climate and ecological crisis.” Social scientist Professor Jorge Riechmann said that the prospect of ecocide, coupled with genocide, requires a strong social response. In this article, I believe it is necessary for scientists to unite to fight. [1]. Firstly, civil disobedience is more urgent than words to make people realize the importance and urgency of all uniting against environmental destruction. Secondly, scientists have conducted a lot of scientific research, and this action will make the government realize the need to make appropriate laws and policies to protect the environment.
Environmental proponents have been practicing civil disobedience in various forms for decades. The definition of the term civil disobedience is usually championed by Henry David Thoreau, and the ideas he shares today can be summarized as follows: Citizens should take whatever steps are necessary to stop their government from overriding their collective conscience, or taking away their rights, or committing wrongdoing or allowing injustice. If the government does any of these things, citizens should try to stop it, even if they have to resort to civil disobedience. Since the beginning of this year, young German climate activists have stepped up their actions to denounce the government’s expedient measures to prevent climate change and the collapse of the planet’s biodiversity. They have demanded that the German government enact a law prohibiting supermarkets from destroying their unsold goods. Actually, it’s a small scale of movement in numbers, but it has managed to attract a disproportionate amount of attention.[2]
Civil disobedience is very useful for environmentalists in that it doesn’t hurt anyone, or even inconvenience anyone (except the protesters) much. It simply ignores traditional social “norms” which it does not accept, nor does it accept, the status quo.
- https://www.nationofchange.org/2022/04/05/climate-revolution-scientists-launch-global-civil-disobedience-campaign/
- https://www.tellerreport.com/life/2022-06-25-german-environmental-activists-advocate-civil-disobedience.ryNRKptNcq.html#:~:text=German%20environmental%20activists%20advocate%20civil%20disobedience%206%2F25%2F2022%2C%206%3A28%3A38,change%20and%20the%20collapse%20of%20the%20planet%27s%20biodiversity.