What Is the Social Responsibility of Climate Scientists

Bibliographic Data

ID9685162
AuthorsNaomi Oreskes (0000-0001-6122-9843, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume149
Issue4
Pages33-45
Publication date2020-10-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDaedalus (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0011-5266 • E-ISSN: 1548-6192
PublisherMIT Press - Journals (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1162/daed_a_01815
OpenAlexW3088817261
LanguageEN
Citations received11

Do scientists have a responsibility to act affirmatively to ensure that our findings are known, understood, and put to use to protect our fellow citizens, even if it means expanding our activities beyond the field and the laboratory? I argue that scientists have a sentinel responsibility to alert society to threats about which ordinary people have no other way of knowing. However, the same expertise that makes a scientist an appropriate sentinel in one or several domains almost necessarily makes them inexpert in other domains. I believe that we should exercise restraint when asked to intercede in areas beyond our proximate expertise

Engineering ethics · Environmental ethics · Field (mathematics · Political science · Public relations · Social responsibility · Sociology · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access