Science in Resistance--Direct Action for Climate Justice, Democracy in Education: A Conversation with Fernando Racimo

Today it gives me special pleasure to speak with Fernando Racimo, a leading scientist-activist, about his new book, Science in Resistance. This book gives a riveting account of the founding and growth of the international group Scientist Rebellion, in which now thousands of scientists from around the world have organized direct actions to draw attention to the climate crisis. Breaking through the censorship and silencing carried on by big fossil fuel companies, and also scientific groups in and out of academia, which often collude with each other, members of SR have put their careers, and their bodies on the line to raise public consciousness and to spur action. We talk about the connection between power and knowledge, between ecocide and genocide, and the need to democratize education and research if we are going to have the kind of world we want to both live in, and to pass on to other generations.

Fernando Racimo is a scientist-activist and the author of the new book Science in Resistance. He co-founded the Danish chapters of Scientist Rebellion and Academics for Palestine, and works at the intersection of academia and social movement organizing. He earned his bachelor from Harvard University and his PhD from the University of California Berkeley, and is now an associate professor in ecology and evolution at the Globe Institute in the University of Copenhagen. He has written articles and OpEds on the urgent need for scientists to join and support social movements fighting structures of oppression, as well as on strategies for transforming and democratizing academic institutions to serve positive socio-ecological needs. At the University of Copenhagen, he teaches on various topics including ecology and evolution, degrowth and socio-ecological justice, decolonizing global health and social movement theory and practice. He currently co-runs a study circle on Degrowth and Exnovation as part of the Nordic Summer University, to explore creative and democratically engaging ways to undo, dismantle and decommission unsustainable institutions, structures and technologies.