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Short abstract:

Climate change necessitates a changing role for academics. How can academics delegitimise political and social ‘business-as-usual’? In this contribution, I point at several political roles academics could play, such as motivation, activism, sabotage, and legitimisation.

Long abstract:

On-going denial about the severity of climate change necessitates a changing role for academics. Where in the past the role of aloof fact-provider – or of honest broker (Pielke, 2003) –still held value, lethargy in the face of climate breakdown requires an openly political stance. Climate denial and deliberate misinformation (e.g. Oreskes & Conway, 2010) render the politics of knowledge imminently visible. Despite climate damages intensifying, most societies are “living in denial” (Norgaard), nominally accepting the need for political action but continuing ‘business-as-usual’. This is deeply problematic, as in the words of Andreas Malm, “the term ‘business-as-usual’ is commonly employed as a stand-in for the fossil economy”. Academics are complicit, as they often refrain from politicising this simple fact, reproduce it in the science-policy interface, and project all manner of business-as-usual futures. I argue for a more openly political academic stance. Rather than eschewing the political aspects of knowledge production or retreating to the bastion of neutrality, I argue for academics politicising the patent absurdity of sleepwalking into catastrophe. As an analogy, one might look to the fact that academics often play (sometimes paid) roles as business and political consultants – a role easily as political as encouraging civil disobedience or sabotage. This raises the question: how can climate scientists and academics at large politicise climate change and delegitimise political and social ‘business-as-usual’? From personal experience, I point at several political roles academics could play, such as crafting aspirational futures, sabotaging established procedures, legitimising (non-)violent resistance, and becoming activists themselves.