Tech-Optimist Scientists 23% Less Climate-Active: LSE — SkimNews
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- London School of Economics researchers, in a study of 9,000+ scientists across 115 countries, found techno-optimists were 23% less likely to sign petitions or take part in climate protests than peers skeptical of tech solutions
- The same group was 18% less likely to adopt high-impact lifestyle changes such as reducing flights, cutting car use, or switching to a vegan or vegetarian diet
- Only 27% of surveyed scientists agreed that "technology will largely solve the problems caused by climate change," while 44% disagreed and 29% were neutral, according to the study published in Environmental Research Letters
- Fabian Dablander, the lead author, argued techno-optimism fosters "over reliance on unproven solutions at the expense" of the socioeconomic transformation the crisis requires
- Techno-optimism was most concentrated among scientists with right-leaning political views and those working in applied and natural sciences
- Prof Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre at the University of Manchester said high-income climate academics have "enthusiastically swallowed the blue pill" of tech salvation to escape personal responsibility, often with weaker evidential standards than they would demand of others
Why it matters: If the very experts the public relies on to interpret the climate crisis are 23% less civically active because of faith in future technology, it shrinks the coalition pushing for the consumption and policy changes that researchers themselves say must accompany any tech deployment.
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