🚨BREAKING: Disruption of "Sustainability in Higher Education" Conference🚨
Academia should live up to its responsibility to society and convey urgency. Shouldn’t we turn academic conferences into emergency briefings? Shouldn’t we organize ourselves to face this unbearable situation together?
The @freieuniversitaet is hosting an international conference on Sustainability in Higher Education this week. Keynotes and workshops reflect on the implementation of sustainability in teaching, governance, research and communication. A sign in the good direction! Or is it really?
Right after the president of the FU Berlin opened the conference, an alarm bell rang, and two conference participants came to the podium holding a banner with the words “Act Now!”
While Matthias Grotkopp was explaining how conferences like this one are by far not enough and scientists should engage more decidedly to pressure governments to declare a climate emergency, fellow scientists from Scientist Rebellion pasted posters on the conference hall’s walls.
We demand:
University presidents together with representatives from emergency services (fire brigades, medical staff) hold a press conference and announce an emergency briefing for the new senate of Berlin explaining the expected future and adequate actions!