On Friday 20th September both myself (Nick Andrews, Managing Director) and Andy Dobson (Client Services Director) will be downing tools for the day to support the Global Climate Strike.
Specifically, we’ll be joining our children at the Oxford Climate Strike demonstration. We’d like to share a brief summary of our reasons for doing this.
Students have every right to be angry about the threat to the planet’s future, and we’re inspired by our children’s courage in wishing to join other school pupils taking action all around the world.
The global school strike movement is having substantial success in raising awareness of the true scale of the climate crisis, and seeks to encourage governments to act with greater urgency to create a better future for all of us.
Today’s children face an uncertain and unsafe future, with a very real risk within their lifetimes of extreme weather, threats to food and water supply, displacement of communities, and consequent conflicts. They have a right to demand that adults do much better by them. Substantial action needs to be taken within a very short timescale, and on a global scale.
All of these issues are also extremely relevant to the scholarly publishing community. Greta Thunberg’s message is simply: “unite behind the science“. And what’s the purpose of scholarly research if it isn’t taken seriously by governments and the media?
Indeed, a recent statement by over 12,000 scientists confirms that young people’s climate demands “are justified and supported by the best available science“.
At its core the global climate movement is simply championing expert research over misinformation and vested interests. As such, we would encourage all of our scholarly publishing colleagues to join us in standing up for the science.
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