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Another letter to the Science Museum Trustees
24 November 2024 - The sponsor of the Science Museum, Adani Green, is once again embroiled in a major scandal. Executives of the company, including Gautam Adani himself, are facing serious bribery and fraud charges. It is expected that US authorities will invoke the India-US extradition treaty, compelling Adani to face these charges in the United States. This development adds to a growing list of fraud allegations associated with the Adani Group.
Despite numerous protests and repeated appeals through letters, the Science Museum Trustees have thus far chosen to ignore our concerns about their sponsor. This continued inaction raises serious questions about the ethical standards upheld by the museum in its partnerships.
In light of this latest scandal, we have written yet again to the Trustees, urging them to take immediate and decisive action. It is time for the Trustees to prioritise accountability and integrity over affiliations with a sponsor mired in controversy.
Scientists occupy the lobby of the Bank of England Prudential Regulation Authority
28 October 2024 - Extinction Rebellion’s week of actions #InsureOurSurvival, focused on the Achilles heel of the fossil fuel industry: their insurers. On the 28 of October, joining forces with other professional groups, Scientists for XR occupied the lobby of the Bank of England Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) lobby, urging the regulatory body to prioritize long-term financial stability over short-term gains from fossil fuel investments. Despite warnings about the risks of fossil fuel extraction, insurance companies continue to underwrite new oil, gas, and coal products. This contradicts expert warnings and risks making millions uninsurable due to climate-related disasters. The protesters call on the PRA to adhere to its mandate of financial stability and safety, advocating for an insurable future for all.
Juries must be allowed to hear scientists
19 September 2024 - Scientists for XR joined Defend our Juries outside the Ministry of Justice in London to call out Judge Hehir for not allowing Professor Bill McGuire to speak at the trial of climate protestors Roger Hallam, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, and Cressida Gethin (The #WholeTruthFive).
Watch what happened (credit Zoe Broughton)
The judge also prevented the defendants from telling the jury about the climate science that has motivated them to act and stopped them from sharing a summary of the evidence for climate change, including the UK government’s own findings and advice. It’s almost as if some judges don’t want juries to hear the science. And there might be a reason, because when juries are allowed to hear the science around climate change, they often acquit climate protesters.
Photo credit Crispin Hughes
Restore Nature Now march
22 June 2024 - Scientists for XR joined 400 climate and nature organisations on the streets of London for the biggest nature and climate march that the UK has ever seen.
The march featured on national broadcasts including Channel 4, ITV and Sky News, in over 20 national newspaper articles including the Telegraph and the Daily Mail , achieving more than 150 pieces of media coverage, making this one of the most media-covered marches ever!
Photo credit Gareth Morris
Scientists for XR and children activities at the Natural History Museum
28 April 2024 - Scientists for XR coordinated a “Unite for Nature” outreach for families visiting the Natural History Museum. Over 30 members of XR Grandparents and Elders, Families, Educators, Scientists, Doctors and local London groups ran activities for children and families which focused on understanding the nature emergency and climate change, and what can be done to address both. It combined games and other learning activities for children and conversations with their parents on the ecological and climate emergency and the importance of taking action, including participation in the June 22 Restore Nature Now march.
Photo Credit Kirk Pritchard
Scientists for XR occupy new coal-sponsored Science Museum gallery
12-14 April 2024 - More than 30 protesters led by Youth Action for Climate Justice and Scientists for Extinction Rebellion have occupied the Science Museum’s new climate gallery, Energy Revolution, over its sponsorship by the coal giant and arms manufacturer, Adani. Naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham joined the group as they began their protest. Over the weekend, protesters took part in a two-day protest, sleeping overnight inside the museum. The group had planned to hold a public assembly to discuss what could be a suitable sponsor for the gallery, but the museum decided to close the exhibition to the public on Saturday, preventing the protesters and the pile of coal they had built from being seen by the public. The action was widely reported in the media.
Watch what happened
Photo Credit Andrea Domeniconi
Scientists for XR target Science Museum event with Greta Thunberg over fossil fuel sponsors
1 Feb 2024 - Greta joins Scientists for XR, Health for XR and Extinction Rebellion to challenge the museum’s Science Director Roger Highfield over the museum’s partnership with coal giant Adani.
The protest was reported in more than 10 news outlets, including a mention of Channel 4 news reporting on Greta’s trial.
Photo credit Jonathon Vines
Scientists return to Parliament
24 Nov 2023 - Following the success of their initial action with Chris Packham in September, our scientists returned to Parliament on Tuesday 21 November to “greencard” their MPs about new oil and gas licences. This time a lot of them raised the issue of the Energy Chartered Treaty, something most MPs did not have on their radar. Their action was reported in 3 local newspapers
The Sheffield Wire
The Lancaster Guardian
The Camden New Journal (page2)
Dr Stuart Capstick, an environmental social scientist at Cardiff University, and his 8-year-old son Isaac met with Kerry McCarthy, their local Bristol East MP and the Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Net Zero. Photo Credit: Rei Takver
Restore Nature Now
23 Sept 2023 - To coincide with the publication of the 2023 'State of Nature' report, Scientists for XR joined more than 40 non-governmental organisations and environmental groups on the 28th September at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in London and various other locations across the UK (Bristol, Newcastle, Reading, and York). The event, led by Chris Packham's team, marked a significant collaboration between individuals, non-governmental organisations, and other environmental groups.
A summary of the UK-wide trends from The State of Nature Report 2023 has been prepared by our team of ecologists, led by Professor Jeff Waage.
Photo Credit Sennen Powel
No new oil
4 Sep 2023 - Scientists for XR were amonsgt the 100 scientists who greeted their MPs outside the Houses of Parliament and demanded that they stop sanctioning future licences for oil and gas.
Conservationist and TV presenter Chris Packham led the delegation holding signs that read “The science is clear, no new oil”.
We talked to our MPs inside and outside parliament.
Photo credit: Sennen Powell
Where is your line in the sand?
28 June 2023 - On the morning of the board meeting, Scientists for XR asked the Science Museum’s trustees where their line in the sand was. They even suggested that they could help the trustees remove their dirty coal sponsor Adani from the museum.
Rain of shame at the Science Museum
18 June 2023 - A few hours before the Great Exhibition Road Festival started, with the help of various XR groups, Scientists for XR shone a light on the Science Museum’s shameful interactions with the fossil fuel industry. Read more
Photo Credit Andrea Domeniconi
Then they set up an unauthorised stand in front of the Science Museum to talk to the public about the museum’s sponsors. Read more
Photo Credit Sennen Powell
Stop Drax Burning Ancient Forests
26 April 2023 - Members of Scientists for XR joined @axe_drax and @sbtcoalition at the @DraxGroup AGM today to disrupt it and make noise that: Wood shipped from the USA is burnt in Yorkshire at Drax. It is a huge carbon emitter and source of air pollution in making the pellets and in burning them.
more information
Scientists at The Big One
21-24 Apr 2023 - Scientists for XR, alongside 100K protestors, participated to The Big One in front of parliament for 4 days.
- We marched for nature
- We marched against new fossil fuel licensing
- We did media interviews
- We showed solidarity with our Spanish colleagues who are being prosecuted for defending the Earth
but also spent most of our time having fabulous discussions with members of the public, fellow protestors and new scientists joining our ranks.
Apr 2023 - Elsevier, the famous publisher of health, science and climate research and its parent company are also supporting fossil fuel expansion. So we attended their AGM and visited their HQ office in London.
Mar 2023 - Our coalition made its way inside the Science Museum to hold the launch of a newly published hard back photo-book 'Science Museum Group: an unravelling tragedy’.
This book is based on the Museum’s own disturbing 12-page due diligence report into the Adani Group that the trustees did not see. It brings to life a catalogue of criminal investigations, corruption litigation, environmental issues, cronyism and human rights abuses related to the Science Museum sponsor Adani.
Read more and see the book here
The book, which has been compiled and published by the Fossil Free Science Museum coalition, including Scientists for XR, has been posted to all current and recent trustees and advisors of the Science Museum Group (SMG) including a lot of prominent scientists (their names are listed on page 10)
During the book launch, astrophysicist and Scientist for XR, Lucy Hogarth speaks powerfully about her first memory of the Science Museum and her dismay at its sponsorship ties to coal mining conglomerate Adani.
Photo credit: AC
Feb 2023 - To mark the 2023 Darwin's birthday anniversary celebrations, Dr Tristram Wyatt and Prof. Richard Gregory from the RSPB were invited by the Centre for Ecology and Evolution to debate the role of scientists as citizens in times of ecological and climate emergencies. The debate took place at the Natural History Museum, London. Dr Tristram Wyatt, a British evolutionary biologist best known for his work on pheromones and animal behaviour, is an active member of Scientists for Extinction Rebellion and was advocating that it was time for scientists to speak out and engage in activism.
Listen to his talk here. Sabhrina Gita Aninta, a PhD student who attended the debate, wrote a commentary published by the Nature Portfolio Ecology and Evolution Community.
Feb 2023 - First exhibition of Neal Haddaway's 'Duty Bound' Photographic project at Imperial college in London.
Scientists for XR explains to their colleagues and students why they stepped into activism.
Feb 2023 - Collaboration with the Natural History museum.
Under the label ‘Unite to Survive’, Scientists for XR alongside XR families, XR Grandparents and Elders, XR Educators and XR Art Blockers, organised games and learning experiences for children about the wonders of the natural world. More about the event.
Feb 2023 - Four Scientists for XR won their appeal in Southwark Crown Court after being found guilty last August on a charge of criminal damage to the value of £2,000.
Photo credit: Neal Haddaway
The outcome of this appeal highlights once again the inconsistencies of the legal system. The five other scientists who took part in the action at BEIS were separately tried in October, and, in accordance with the recent ruling in relation to the Colston Four appeal, were found to have no case to answer. However, it took more time and money for the four remaining scientists to be vindicated and prove that, like their colleagues, they were exercising their rights to protest under the Human Rights Act.
Extinction Rebellion scientists: why we glued ourselves to a government department.
Dec 2022 - As COP15, the biggest biodiversity conference in a decade, takes place in Montreal, Scientists for XR went to the amazing Natural History Museum in London to remind visitors that the science is clear; nature is in crisis! We rely on functioning ecosystems, but 1 million species are threatened with extinction! We need urgent government action to halt biodiversity loss.
Nov 2022 - On the 25th November, 20 scientists took to Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Agriculture) to take action against government inaction on protecting nature and biodiversity in the UK as 570 environmental laws are set to be revoked - leaving nature open to further rapid degradation.
Using water-soluble paper paste and chalk spray, they decorated the outer glass of the department building with posters stating the statistics that illustrate the government failings. They also handed out a letter to the Defra employees (read here), to highlight that the protest was not directed at the employees, acknowledging that they are doing a crucial job in difficult conditions.
They cleaned off the posters and chalk spray themselves immediately following the action, leaving no mess or refuse behind.
Read about the action and watch here.
Watch the live stream of the action here.
Nov 2022 - No case to answer - Not guilty
Five Scientists for Extinction Rebellion on trial for criminal damage have been acquitted by a magistrates’ court in London. They were facing a charge of criminal damage to the value of £2,000.
Photo credit: Vladimir Morozov
They were part of a group of nine scientists who pasted scientific papers, used chalk spray and glued themselves to the windows of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience to highlight the danger posed by new oil and gas exploration. They were joined by a dozen other scientists and assisted in their actions by doctors and health professionals.
The four other scientists who were arrested at BEIS were separately tried and found guilty in September by a district judge. They are appealing their verdict and sentence.
Extinction Rebellion scientists: why we glued ourselves to a government department.
Oct 2022 - The new formed group, Cambridge Scientists for XR, joined in with the vigil outside the University’s Senate House. The protest was part of Cambridge XR’s long standing direct action Schlumberger Out! Campaign.
Sep 2022 - If grief is the price of love, responsibility is the price of power. On the eve of Queen Elisabeth II funeral, while the eyes of the world are turned towards the UK, we ask the government to address the concerns of the people, and to allow them to live in dignity.
Aug 2022 - Scientists for XR write a paper in Nature Climate on why civil disobedience by scientists is now justified in the face of climate inaction by governments and corporations
Photo credit: Crispin Hughes
Front page of The Guardian
Extinction Rebellion scientists: why we glued ourselves to a government department
Twitter thread explaining why the UK energy strategy is pure madness
Photo Credit Andrea Domeniconi
Scientists during the rebellion
Vauxhall Bridge
Visit to the Royal Society
Scientists’ road block
March 2022 - Scientists for XR photo appears in the New Scientists
"I think the activism connected with climate change is really to try and get the point across that while we're never sure in science - you can never be certain - with overwhelming probability things are going badly. ...” Physicist Jim Al-Khalili
February 2022 - Marching in the streets for climate-crisis action
In a Nature article, conservationist Charlie Gardner explains why he joined Scientists for Extinction Rebellion and its civil-disobedience protests.
Photo credit: Louise Jasper
February 2022 - Scientists for XR join 10 other solidarity groups to amplify the voices of Indigenous communities who suffered from Adani, the latest sponsor of the Science Museum. A van parked outside the front of the museum and played films made by Indigenous people showing the destruction Adani has caused in India, Indonesia and Australia.
Photo credit: Crispin Hughes
November 2021 - London UK - Scientists for XR join XR activists to appeal to the Science Museum trustees to end ties with fossil fuel sponsors
Photo Credit Andrea Domeniconi
Listen to Dr Lucy Hogarth here
Photo credit Crispin Hughes
November 2021 - London UK - Scientists for XR join a protest at the Royal Court of Justice to protest against the imprisonment of peaceful climate activists who are sacrificing their freedom to protect our futures. Two of our friends and colleagues, Dr Emma Smart, Ecologist and Dr Ben Buse, Geologist are amongst them.
October 2021 - London UK - Scientists for XR locked on to the doors of the Science Museum to protest against the Department of International Trade Global Investment Summit 'rolling out the green carpet' for some of the biggest names in coal finance, with speakers including CEOs of Barclays, JP Morgan, BlackRock, Blackstone and Adani, the major coal conglomerate and latest sponsor of the museum.
August 2021 -London UK - Scientists for XR imagine what a fossil free Science Museum could look like and decide to occupy the museum over night alongside 70 Extinction Rebellion activists.
Aug 2021 - London UK - Scientists for XR kick off the August Rebellion talking to drivers on the streets of London
Photo credit: Crispin Hughes
June 2021 - London UK - Scientists for XR denounce the inaction of the british press in front of Murdoch News building
Photo Crispin Hughes
June 2021 - London UK - Alongside UKStudent Climate Network London, Scientists for XR protest at the Science Museum against their decision to accept Shell sponsorship of their new climate change exhibition “Our Future Planet”.
May 2021 - London UK - Alongside other XR groups, Scientists for XR protest outside the Science Museum against Shell sponsorship. A group of Scientists for XR lock themselves to a mechanical tree in the museum, the centerpiece of the Shell sponsored Our Future Planet exhibition.
May 2021 - UK - The Ecologist publishes Scientists for XR open letter to the director and chief executive of the Science Museum Group calling for an end to Shell sponsorship.
March 2021 - UK - Scientists for XR back the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill
January 2021 - Scientist for XR, Dr Charlie Gardner speaks about his unique approach to science and the multiple ways in which he uses his work life to make a real-world impact for all our sakes.
Rebel with a cause: Charlie Gardner on being a scientist-activist
Photos by Louise Jasper for WTTJ
ARCHIVE
Sept 2020 - UK - Following her arrest, Scientists for XR Emma Smart speaks to The Biologist
Photo Vincenzo Lullo
Aug 2020 - UK - Scientists for XR march with Lawyers for XR for the opening day of the rebellion
12.02.2020 S4XR is tremendously sad to report the death of Raphael Coleman, known to us as Iggy Fox, who died suddenly on Feb 7 while overseas. Best known to the public for his acting role in Nanny McPhee, he was known to XR as a passionate activist and advocate for wildlife and the natural world. More about him can be found here.
Jan 2020 How scientists are dealing with ecological grief - Guardian
Dec 2019 Should scientists be activists? CPR news article on the growing body of scientists who are supporting direct action on the climate crisis.
Nov 2019 Morning Star report on demands for educating children about the climate crisis
Nov 2019 Scientists for XR marched through the streets of London, handing in a letter at the Dept for Education before marching to Trafalgar Square where they held a teach-in to explain the climate crisis to members of the public. “We’re here to demand that parties across the political spectrum listen to the science and take action appropriate to the science”
Nov 2019 #Reforest earth: 1000 trees outside UK parliament with Mathew Shribman
Nov 2019 UCL Minds lunch-hour lecture by Kate Jeffery The psychology of climate inaction
Oct 2019 Scientists’ panel discussion on XR’s Rebel Radio about the science of climate change
Oct 2019 Common Dreams article about the Scientists 4 XR declaration
Oct 2019 Daily Mail article about scientists’ endorsement of civil protest
Oct 2019 Reuters: scientists endorse mass civil disobedience to force climate action
Oct 2019 BBC News: interview with Emily Grossman Broadcast from the rebellion in London.