In the wake of an alarming report on climate change, scientists around the world protested the lack of action by governments and corporations to thwart greenhouse gas emissions. 

In April, over 1,000 scientists across 25 countries staged protests after the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2022 report, according to Smithsonian Magazine. 

The report, released Feb. 28, says that if warming isn’t limited, the world “will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.” 

Climate extremes like wildfires, flooding, hurricanes, deadly heat and droughts will become much more common as the planet warms. 

Scientists who participated in the protests, collectively calling themselves the Scientist Rebellion, outlined their goals in an open letter. The letter opens by stating the group’s goal to “expose the reality and severity of the climate and ecological emergency by engaging in non-violent civil disobedience.”

LSU professors involved in climate research spoke about the IPCC’s report and global protests.

Vincent Brown, a professor and researcher in the Department of Geography and Anthropology, said that the scientific community was alarmed by the rate of change in climate and the lack of action by governments and corporations.

“Things are changing pretty rapidly, and it is concerning,” Brown said, “and I’m glad there were protests because the more light that’s shed on this issue, hopefully, the more governments and corporations will feel the need to change and make changes.”

Brown was not aware of any LSU professors who participated in the 2022 scientist protests, but he drew comparisons between this year’s protests and the 2017 March for Science. In April 2017, hundreds of Baton Rouge community members gathered at the Capitol in efforts to connect the academic community with the public.

A major focus of the IPCC’s 2022 report was risks and vulnerabilities. The report showed that North America would have increased adverse impacts caused by climate change in nearly every category reported on.

Notable adverse effects predicted for Louisiana include inland flooding, flood and storm damage in coastal areas, damage to key economic sectors and displacement.

“Louisiana is the most vulnerable state in the United States to climate change ­­­—I think that’s pretty unequivocal,” said Barry Keim, the Louisiana state climatologist and a geography and anthropology professor at LSU.

Louisiana is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise because much of the state’s land is at or near sea level and that land is sinking at more rapid rates than almost any other place in the world, Keim said. This gives Louisiana a relatively high sea level rise in comparison to other areas.

New Orleans, the economic and cultural hub of Louisiana, may be the city most vulnerable to climate change, Keim said. 

“Half the city is situated below sea level and sinking,” Keim said.

Cheryl Harrison, an assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences who studies the impacts of climate change and extreme climate events, spoke about the implications of New Orleans’ vulnerability to climate change.

“Imagine that New Orleans is gone—it’s underwater,” Harrison said. “The human impact, the economic impact, the cultural impact not just to Louisiana, but to the country—to the world. It would be a huge loss, and there’s nothing we could do to recover that.”

The New Orleans-Metairie metropolitan area has a population of 1.27 million and is the largest city in the state, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“We can’t rebuild ice sheets if they’re melted,” Harrison said. “And if those ice sheets on land melt, the sea level will rise permanently.”

Though the IPCC report did not only discuss impacts and risks; it also considered different options for mitigation of damage and methods to adapt to the new climate. These ideas involve a broad range of sciences and are being actively researched today.

Brown serves as the climate research director for the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program; Keim serves as a principal investigator for the organization. SCIPP is a NOAA-funded climate hazards research program, which focuses on climate risks and impacts across the southern and central United States.

SCIPP is overseeing a wide range of research, such as how a wet-ball globe temperature, novel global temperature metric, could help predict future hospitalizations and heat stress; a study looking at how the northern Gulf Coast has the highest rate of relative sea level rise; and a study monitoring how warming winter climates are affecting flora and fauna across the southern United States.

Brown and Keim are also working with the Sewage and Water Board of New Orleans to study how flooding in the city has increased in recent years. The project is funded by a grant from NOAA, and in preliminary research has found that some parts of the city are more severely affected by heavy rainfall. 

The two researchers are developing a survey for New Orleans residents to see what inhabitants know about the city’s flooding and how they think it relates to climate change. They hope to administer the survey within the next month, Brown said. 

But Brown and Keim are far from the only researchers at LSU studying the climate. 

The LSU College of the Coast and Environment published the Coastal Directory in 2021, a repository that lists over 200 LSU researchers and professors involved in coastal and environmental research, their contact information, and areas of research interest. 

The directory divides coastal researchers into the subcategories of climate and weather, ecology, economics and planning, engineering, health, modeling, processes and measurement and people.

When it comes to avoiding the worst-case scenarios of climate change, professors spoke about what needs to be done beyond research.

“Everything we do requires energy,” Brown said.

Transitioning infrastructure away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives needs to occur to avoid upper-bound worst-case scenarios, Brown said.

When asked what LSU students can do to help the climate, Brown suggested starting small by recycling, consuming less, exploring options such as growing your own food and avoiding reliance on oil-based plastics. Brown also urged students to stay informed on the complicated topic of climate and to be aware of the influences that would prefer to keep the status quo.

Keim agreed with Brown and asked students to do whatever they could to make a difference.

“A lot of little things add up to big things,” Keim said.

Harrison said being informed was one of the most important things students could do.

“Find out how the projected impacts of climate change will affect your families and your communities in your area,” Harrison said. “And use that information to get involved in any way that you see fit to take action.”

Harrison teaches the class Managing For a Changing Climate, currently OCS 4001, which is offered for science and non-science majors and studies the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and society. Brown teaches climatology, currently GEOG 4014, and Keim teaches Climatology of Extreme Events, GEOG 7917.