When Systems Fail and Institutions Crumble

But this is not primarily about the feelings of American researchers. This is about the dramatic consequences of the political attacks on researchers and their institutions. It is about the devastation of years of climate research.

It's about the future of the Arctic.

Recognizable concern

I recognize the concern Rennermalm expressed during her visit to the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø, Northern Norway, last week.

U.S. Researcher Warns Europe: “You Are Only an Election Away”

In Reykjavik last October, another American professor, John Holdren, argued that political leaders are planting disdain for science among their voters.

Like Rennermalm, Holdren described how American research institutions are shut down, and researchers are fired. These researchers and institutions have a crucial influence on how the climate crisis is to be understood and addressed.

But Åsa Rennermalm also issues a warning to Europe. She observes the rise of political forces with the same attitude towards climate as President Donald Trump. Should they win elections, and that is not at all unlikely, institutional research in Europe could crumble before our very eyes.

Something has already happened.

Climate biggest challenge

Most people, including European defense chiefs and state leaders, agree that climate is a greater challenge than war.

War affects the climate directly, but it is equally important that the ongoing war in Europe is taking an increasingly larger share of all the countries' state budgets. This reduces budgets that would otherwise go to research, while an increasing share of existing research funds is shifted from research to climate to research on war and weapons.

Politicians Plant Disdain For Science in Their Voters

She might not have known when we interviewed her, Åsa Rennermalm, but her worry about the European institutions came at a time when their integrity and independence are being eroded from within.

All over Europe, skeletons are falling out of closets that the convicted abuser Jeffrey Epstein had an exclusive key to.

What those who are now under investigation have in common, those who are charged, those who have been caught lying, those who have left or been stripped of their positions, is that they have or have had control over central societal institutions.

Big difference

They held positions intended to ensure democracy or prevent corruption. They even had ambitions and a mandate to, to use a cliché, create peace on earth.

Now, in the name of truth, it must be said that there is still a big difference between what has happened in the USA and what is happening and can happen in Europe. We are still surrounded by relatively solid control methods and democracy. And a legal system that shows the ability to intervene.

We also have researchers who dare to speak up. That is no longer a given in the USA.

But even the American researcher Åsa Rennermalm, who is originally Swedish, thought the institutions were more resilient and stable than they proved to be when a president and his voters wanted it otherwise.