Challenging the neutrality myth in climate science and activism

2024/10/05 by Christel W. van Eck, Lydia Messling, Katharine Hayhoe · 2 voices · 20 citations
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Art #Biology #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Climate Change and Geoengineering #Climate change #Climate science #Ecology #Environmental ethics #Law #Literature #Mythology #Neutrality #Philosophy #Political science #Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s44168-024-00171-9

published in npj Climate Action 3(1)

openalex publication_date 2024/10/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15

Abstract

We argue that Büntgen’s (2024) claim that climate science must be separated from activism is fundamentally flawed. Activism does not inherently lead to biased science and striving for value-free science is both unattainable and undesirable. Instead, we advocate for redefining the boundaries of acceptable influence of values in scientific communication and offer practical strategies to move beyond the misleading myth of neutrality.

Citations

• Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists
• Democratic Values: A Better Foundation for Public Trust in Science

Cited by

• How scientists can contribute to the social movements essential to protecting climate and nature
• Human-Centered Threat Modeling in Practice: Lessons, Challenges, and Paths Forward
• Academic Activism and the Climate Crisis: Should Scholars Protest?
• Advocacy – defending science or destroying it? Interviews with 47 climate scientists about their fundamental concerns
• A critique of climate objectivity in the context of global injustice
• How frames and narratives in press releases shape newspaper science articles: the case of ocean plastic pollution
• Navigating the credibility risks of environmental scientists' activism. [europepmc]

Discussions

• “The claim that climate science must be separated from activism is fundamentally flawed Activism does not inherently lead to biased science” 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 doi.org/10.1038/s441... [bsky, 32 points, 2 comments]
• van Eck, C.W., Messling, L. & Hayhoe, K. Challenging the neutrality myth in climate science and activism. npj Clim. Action 3, 81 (2024). doi.org/10.1038/s441... [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

Related

• Advocacy – defending science or destroying it? Interviews with 47 climate scientists about their fundamental concerns
• A critique of climate objectivity in the context of global injustice
• The activism responsibility of climate scientists and the value of science-based activism
• Against separation: the importance of transdisciplinary collaboration in climate action
• Between two worlds: the scientist’s dilemma in climate activism