The discourses of climate inaction in the scientific community

Résumé 0

Scientists are often seen as whistleblowers on environmental crises. Despite this, there are many indications that the scientific community as a whole fails to commit to a successful ecological transition. In this paper, we explore this ambiguity by studying the discourses of resistance to climate action within the scientific community. We use a typology of the “discourses of climate delay” developed by William Lamb and its colleagues to analyze a corpus of scientists discourses collected from several laboratories and university meetings in Toulouse and Bordeaux. We first show that all the arguments traditionally associated with climate inaction can be found in the scientists’ discourses. The same cultural logics appear to be at work within the scientific community as in the rest of the society. Secondly, we note the existence of several arguments specific to the scientific community. These are based on a common sense epistemology (neutrality, academic freedom, the intrinsic value of “science”, etc.) which seems to be a major factor in the scientists resistance to change their practices.