Editorial: Civil-disobedience movements such as School Strike for the Climate are raising public awareness of the climate-change emergency

Authors: THACKERAY, STEPHEN - Centre For Ecology And Hydrology; ROBINSON, SHARON - University Of Wollongong; SMITH, PETE - University Of Aberdeen; BRUNO, RHEA - University Of Illinois; KIRSCHBAUM, MIKO U.F. - Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research; Bernacchi, Carl; BYRNE, MARIA - University Of Sydney; CHEUNG, WILLIAM - University Of British Columbia; COTRUFO, M. FRANCESCA - Colorado State University; GIENAPP, PHILLIP - Netherlands Institute Of Ecology; HARTLEY, SUE - University Of Sheffield; JANSSENS, IVAN - University Of Antwerp; JONES, T. HEFIN - Cardiff University; KOBAYASHI, KAZUHIKO - University Of Tokyo; LUO, YIQI - Northern Arizona University; PENUELAS, JOSEP - Centre For Ecological Research And Forestry Applications (CREAF); SAGE, ROWAN - University Of Toronto; SUGGETT, DAVID - University Of Technology Sydney; WAY, DANIELLE - University Of Western Ontario; LONG, STEVE - University Of Illinois

Submitted to: Global Change Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/23/2019
Publication Date: 1/23/2020
Citation: Thackeray, S.J., Robinson, S.A., Smith, P., Bruno, R., Kirschbaum, M., Bernacchi, C.J., Byrne, M., Cheung, W., Cotrufo, M., Gienapp, P., Hartley, S., Janssens, I., Jones, T., Kobayashi, K., Luo, Y., Penuelas, J., Sage, R., Suggett, D.J., Way, D., Long, S. 2020. Editorial: Civil-disobedience movements such as School Strike for the Climate are raising public awareness of the climate-change emergency. Global Change Biology. 26(3):1042-1044. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14978.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14978

Interpretive Summary: The climate is changing and globally this is likely to have major impacts on society. This editorial seeks to correlate the impact of acts of civil disobedience such as 'school strikes' with the impact of such efforts beyond those who participate in such events. This editorial shows that these global movements may be increasing public awareness of, and stimulating public engagement with, issues of climate change.

Technical Abstract: The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) ‘Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C’ presented the ambitious target of needing to achieve zero net emissions by 2050 in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement (IPCC, 2018). This report led some governments and jurisdictions to declare a climate emergency (Climate Emergency Declaration, 2019) and prompted the rise of movements of activism and civil disobedience such as the School Strike for the Climate and Extinction Rebellion. The reach of these civil actions extends beyond those directly involved, potentially increasing wider public awareness of climate change. Here, we examine trends in indicators of this wider public awareness and engagement, and compare these with major global movements of civil disobedience focussed on climate, the release of substantive climate reports, and global governmental gatherings on climate change. We show that these global movements may be increasing public awareness of, and stimulating public engagement with, issues of climate change.