Sounding the alarm bell on big business and climate change

Germany's Luisa Neubauer (left), Sweden's Greta Thunberg (second left) and other young climate activists stage a demonstration on the closing day of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos on Jan 20, 2023. — AFP

I wrote about social media in July last year when I made the point that information, and how it is used and distributed, underpins how we function as societies ("Addictive social media distracts us from doing something about the state of the planet", Planetary Health Matters, StarLifestyle, July 19, 2022). It’s a point that I also took up at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, which I attended last month (Jan 16-20, 2023).

There are arguments about the merits of the WEF, but the fact is that this international forum is a place where, sometimes, things get done. A closed-door discussion I spoke at with global leaders was called “Science is experiencing its Don’t Look Up moment, as collapses in the natural world gain pace. How can scientists continue to ramp-up their communications of key evidence to influence the hearts, minds and actions of public and private decision-makers?”