来源：《自然》
原文刊登日期：2023年2月15日
More than 2,000 researchers from around the world have signed a letter asking the American Geophysical Union (AGU) to reverse actions it took against two scientists who briefly protested at its annual meeting in Chicago in December. The scientists had urged their fellow attendees to speak out about the climate crisis. The demonstration was minor, the letter says, and it is scientists’ responsibility to speak up about global warming.
来自世界各地的2000多名研究人员签署了一封信，要求美国地球物理联合会(AGU)撤销对两名科学家的处罚，这两名科学家去年12月在芝加哥举行的年会上曾短暂抗议。他俩敦促其他与会者公开谈论气候危机。信中说，这次示威活动规模很小，科学家有责任为全球变暖问题发声。
The episode resurfaces a long-standing debate about whether climate scientists should engage in activism — and raises new questions about whether their careers will be threatened if they do.
这一事件再次引发了长期以来关于气候科学家是否应该成为行动主义者的争论，并提出了新的问题，即如果科学家这样做，他们的职业生涯是否会受到威胁。
On 15 December 2022, Rose Abramoff, an Earth scientist then at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, and Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, walked on stage at the beginning of an AGU plenary talk and held up a banner reading “Out of the lab & into the streets”. Moments later, the organizers of the session took away the sign and asked them to leave, which they did.
2022年12月15日，当时在田纳西州橡树岭国家实验室工作的地球科学家罗斯·阿布拉莫夫和美国宇航局加利福尼亚州喷气推进实验室(JPL)的气候科学家彼得·卡尔马斯在AGU全体会议开始时走上舞台，举着一条横幅，上面写着“走出实验室，走上街头”。过了一会儿，会议组织者拿走了横幅，要求他们离开，他们照做了。
In response to the protest, the AGU removed the scientists’ abstracts from the meeting programme, expelled them from the meeting and opened cases of professional misconduct against them. The cases are still ongoing. In January, Abramoff was fired from Oak Ridge as a result of the incident. Kalmus still works at JPL, but whether officials there had reprimanded him is unknown.
作为对抗议的回应，AGU将这两名科学家的摘要从会议日程中删除，将他们逐出会议，并对他们提出了职业不端的指控。案件仍在审理中。今年1月，阿布拉莫夫因为这一事件被橡树岭国家实验室工作解雇。卡尔马斯仍然在喷气推进实验室工作，但那里的行政人员是否斥责过他不得而知。
Climate scientists are becoming more and more frustrated by what they view as a lack of action from governments and institutions to curb emissions, so it makes sense that they would choose activism, says Almut Arneth, a biologist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany who signed the letter. The AGU’s response is disproportionate to a non-violent protest, she adds. “We need to make sure that we as scientists are stepping up to stop something that could potentially be quite dangerous for free speech in science.”
德国卡尔斯鲁厄理工学院生物学家阿尔穆特·阿尔内斯在公开信上签了名，她说，气候科学家对政府和科研机构在减排方面缺乏行动感到越来越沮丧，所以他们选择行动主义是有道理的。她补充说，AGU对非暴力抗议的处罚过重。“我们需要确保，作为科学家，我们正在加紧阻止可能对科学言论自由造成相当危险的事情。”
In particular, many younger researchers see themselves as being most at risk from climate change, and so are increasingly turning to activism. The society’s actions in this case set a precedent that could be especially damaging for early-career scientists such as Abramoff, and other researchers in positions without substantial power, says Ana Bastos, a geophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany, who signed the letter. “They might fear for their careers, for their jobs, for their future if they want to become politically engaged.”
特别是，许多年轻的研究人员认为自己最容易受到气候变化的影响，因此越来越多地转向行动主义。德国马克斯·普朗克生物化学研究所的地球物理学家安娜·巴斯托斯在公开信上签了名，她说，AGU在这件事上的行动开创了一个先例，对阿布拉莫夫这样的初入职场的科学家，以及其他没有实质性权力的研究人员来说，可能尤其有害。“如果他们想参与政治，他们可能会担心自己的职业生涯、工作和未来。”
A spokesperson of the AGU said that the society’s ethics policy and meetings code of conduct require “attendees to treat everyone with respect, and this includes respecting presenters’ time to speak and audiences’ time to listen”.
AGU的一位发言人表示，该协会的道德政策和会议行为准则要求“与会者尊重每个人，这包括尊重演讲者发言的时间和观众倾听的时间”。
The spokesperson also said that the society provides opportunities for people “year round” to reserve space for public engagement at all its meetings, and has a proactive stance on “aggressively” addressing the urgency of climate change.
发言人还表示，该协会在所有会议上“全年”为人们提供机会，为公众参与预留空间，并对“积极”应对气候变化的紧迫性持积极态度。