Grist brings us news of the More Than Scientists Project, a Seattle non-profit, which is chronicling the emotions of climate scientists as they work on the greatest challenge of their (and our!) lifetimes. It's a collection of more than 200 videos of climate scientists expressing their feelings and fears about our future.
Watch Ana Ordóñez, a graduate student in the University of Washington’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, keeping it real:
I know for a lot of people, when you first really start thinking about climate change and what a big issue it is, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. If you don’t, that’s great. I wish I could feel that way a lot of the time.
Listen as Josh Lawler, an associate professor in the University of Washington’s School of Forest Resources, as he talks about what our future will be like if we do nothing:
I’m afraid that if we don’t do anything, we’re going to see some pretty uncomfortable changes, and it’s gonna be far worse in some places in the world than others. I mean, there are gonna be food shortages and there are gonna be mass migrations and there are gonna be large disasters […], and all those things will affect our economies, and they’ll effect health — human health. So I think the picture that’s painted – that the scientists paint and that the models paint — if we don’t do anything now, if we don’t curb our emissions quickly, and if we don’t sequester carbon, [is] pretty grim. Humans will survive, and most of the natural world will survive in some state or another, but I think it’ll be a bad time for people.
Here is John Wallace, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, as he talks about his generations responsibility to turn the climate change ship around:
I know I'm getting a bit overwhelmed at times. It helps to know we're all in this together, though I think when the situation worsens it will be every man/women for themselves.
Watch more of their videos here.