Climate hero a man on a most urgent mission

Scientist battling to motivate politicians as facts around global warming grow clearer

I do feel a sense of duty to tell the world about the science behind climate change, how I see the consequences unfolding, and the need for action, which is urgent. Professor James Renwick (above), winner of the $100,000 Prime Minister’s Science Communication Prize

It must be demoralising, you’d think, to be a climate scientist in 2019.

These are people who have spent years tracking models which, collectively and increasingly, point to an unfolding global calamity — all while greenhouse gas emissions have continued to soar.

That the world’s most powerful politician has yanked the secondworst polluting nation out of the UN-led Paris Agreement, and continues to mock the science of climate change, wouldn’t have eased their grief.

Nor would a recent poll showing few New Zealanders believe that humanity would do enough to spare itself those worst consequences of global warming: drought, flood, famine and war.

And nor would the fact that it’s now such an emergency that thousands of young Kiwis will leave their classrooms in protest later this week.

Against all that gloom, it’s a wonder that Professor James Renwick is still pushing his message of hope and positivity.

Renwick — one of our most visible and accessible scientists — was yesterday awarded the $100,000 Prime Minister’s Science Communication Prize from Jacinda Ardern in Wellington.

Regarding the sceptics, the Victoria University climate scientist said: “It can be depressing and frustrating, sure, that there is still this kind of attitude at the highest levels of government, when what we are seeing already should be enough.

“But for me, it’s been more of a motivator.

“It’s now well known that just presenting the facts to people is far from enough, so, how do you get it inside their heads that, boy, this is the number one problem that we have to be dealing with?

“And it’s one thing to get through to people at a Rotary Club in Lower Hutt, but reaching those people who make the decisions in society — the business leaders, the politicians — that’s the real goal.”

Anyone who’s seen him speak — or noticed his colourful and somewhat celebrated collection of waistcoats — would know he’s not the male, stale and pale stereotype of a university professor.

More to the point, though, is his tireless advocacy for climate awareness and action.

In the past five years alone, he’s taken part in more than 100 public presentations, organised major conferences and given hundreds of media interviews, which has made him a favourite target of naysaying cranks.

I do feel a sense of duty to tell the world about the science behind climate change, how I see the consequences unfolding, and the need for action, which is urgent,” Renwick said.

“I was actually talking about this with someone over the weekend, and I commented that we are sort of like this society of drunks who won’t admit that we have a problem — we just keep imbibing and hope that things are going to work out okay.”

Science tells us that we won’t avoid significant climate change — but how bad the future will be depends on how aggressively the world tackles it today.

The most recent figures show that, if warming continues at the current rate, the Paris Agreement’s aspirational threshold of 1.5C will be crossed at some point between 2030 and 2052. Renwick, optimistic as he is, thinks it fanciful that we’d be able to hold that line.

“But with more and more extreme events, and more civil disobedience — the school strike this week is an example of that — I am hopeful that we’ll be able to stop at 2C.”

Even if we couldn’t, his view unshakably remains that it’s never too late to act.

“Even if we’re on track for 3C, well 3C is still better than 4C.”