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Lydia Messling

@lydiamessling.bsky.social
1.3K followers 279 following 47 posts

Researcher in Climate Engagement & Strategy | PhD Climate Justice | Faith & Climate | Consulting: www.lydiamessling.com

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Reposted by Lydia Messling
Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 19/07/2023
Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface
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Reposted by Lydia Messling
Dr Samuel Finnerty @samuelfinnerty.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
On the topic of influence, some scientists engage in climate advocacy & activism to influence action. For a review on the effects of climate advocacy and activism by scientists, we reviewed the literature on the reasons for it & its effects on perceptions of science journals.plos.org/climate/arti...
journals.plos.org
Climate advocacy and activism by scientists: A narrative review
In the context of accelerating climate and environmental crises, advocacy and activism by scientists is becoming increasingly prominent. This growing visibility has intensified the debate surrounding ...
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Well, yes. But loads of the folk we talk to a) don’t do that, they do a cracking job of not sounding like robot and b) I recon you’re doing a disservice to the average voter who actually want to see the gov do more on climate 😜
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
More than just varies though - the paper identifies *what* makes it vary. And other papers cited tell you how you can (and can’t) control how much things vary.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Many thanks to my co-authors @samuelfinnerty.bsky.social @christelvaneck.bsky.social @maiensachis.bsky.social @colognaviktoria.bsky.social and @fdabl.bsky.social for such a fab writing experience.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
We find that the effects of scientist climate advocacy are context dependent, shaped by the dynamic interplay between the advocate, the audience, the mode of advocacy, and the wider political and social context.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
So we thought we'd make a narrative review to map, summarize, and synthesize the existing conceptual and empirical research on the motivations, constraints, and consequences of climate and environmental advocacy by scientists.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
We identify key factors that help explain when and why climate advocacy enhances or undermines credibility, trust, and influence. Research on scientist climate advocacy is dispersed across disciplines, methodologies, and forms of advocacy, often yielding divergent findings.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
📣 NEW PAPER We looked at ALL* that has been written on climate scientists engaging in advocacy and activism and have wrapped it up in this paper for you 🧡 journals.plos.org/climate/arti... *probably missed a few (let us know!), but geez you should look at our reference list.
journals.plos.org
Climate advocacy and activism by scientists: A narrative review
In the context of accelerating climate and environmental crises, advocacy and activism by scientists is becoming increasingly prominent. This growing visibility has intensified the debate surrounding ...
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Reposted by Lydia Messling
Dr Samuel Finnerty @samuelfinnerty.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Should scientists advocate for climate action? Our new review @plosclimate.org finds there is no single answer. The effects of scientist advocacy depend heavily on context, including who is speaking, what they are advocating for, and who is listening. Open access: journals.plos.org/climate/arti...
journals.plos.org
Climate advocacy and activism by scientists: A narrative review
In the context of accelerating climate and environmental crises, advocacy and activism by scientists is becoming increasingly prominent. This growing visibility has intensified the debate surrounding ...
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
*I jest. This piece exists only because my co-authors are top notch and tremendously industrious. I did not lift a finger for the past few months. All credit to them! @samuelfinnerty.bsky.social @maiensachis.bsky.social @colognaviktoria.bsky.social @fdabl.bsky.social @christelvaneck.bsky.social
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
This is top maternity leave productivity here, if I say so myself* 👇🏻 Our preprint is perfect as a quick recce of the research into scientists’ advocacy and activism - the motivations, barriers, tricky bits, and what different people think is good and not so good, and what we might need next.
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Reposted by Lydia Messling
Dr Samuel Finnerty @samuelfinnerty.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Scientists are becoming more visible in public climate debates, but the effects of this engagement are far from straightforward. We often hear strong claims about credibility and trust, yet what does the evidence say? Our new preprint explores this osf.io/preprints/ps... Thread 1/n
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Reposted by Lydia Messling
The Guardian @theguardian.com · 07/07/2025
Politicians are retreating from net zero because they think the public doesn’t care. But they’re wrong | Rebecca Willis
theguardian.com
Politicians are retreating from net zero because they think the public doesn’t care. But they’re wrong | Rebecca Willis
Our research shows people are strongly in favour of measures to tackle the climate crisis. They just need to be listened to, says professor of energy and climate governance Rebecca Willis
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Reposted by Lydia Messling
Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Politicians are retreating from net zero because they think the public doesn’t care. But they’re wrong, says @bankfieldbecky.bsky.social - Our research shows people are strongly in favour of measures to tackle the #climatecrisis - they just need to be heard www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Politicians are retreating from net zero because they think the public doesn’t care. But they’re wrong | Rebecca Willis
Our research shows people are strongly in favour of measures to tackle the climate crisis. They just need to be listened to, says professor of energy and climate governance Rebecca Willis
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Rebecca Willis @bankfieldbecky.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
happy to profile our research in The Guardian today
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Reposted by Lydia Messling
Pancho Lewis @pancholewis.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Excited my paper on 'fluid hope' has been published 🙂 Tldr: There are different forms of hope in a climate emergency -- including urgent, slow, and radical hope. They often support one another, rather than being at odds. @lydiamessling.bsky.social @climatecitizens.bsky.social
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Look! Hope! The public *actually want and support* climate policies - contrary to whatever apathy may be rumoured. Stellar analysis of the outputs from citizen assemblies and juries - literally the policies the public have designed themselves and would green light tomorrow.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
The public want action on adverts for high-carbon products and services. And so so many members of the public want this, and MORE. Fantastic work and stats analysis from @bankfieldbecky.bsky.social and the Climate Citizens research group. 👏 👏 👏
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Reposted by Lydia Messling
Environmental Information: Use and Influence (Dalhousie Univ.) @eiui.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
In today’s highly politicized debate about #ClimateChange, what role should scientists take? Should they be #advocates for action & policy? @lydiamessling.bsky.social et al. asked 47 climate scientists & found 4 concerns, e.g,, risk of biased science & need to defend science. doi.org/10.1177/0963...
Title, authors’ names, and abstract from a paper about climate scientists views about advocacy
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Christel van Eck @christelvaneck.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
1️⃣ There’s much debate about the role of scientists in climate advocacy, but we often overlook the core concerns behind their arguments. In our latest publication 🔍, we map these concerns based on interviews with 47 climate scientists! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Yuyao Lu @yuyaolu.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
New paper out: Our paper investigating climate scientists’ fundamental concerns about climate advocacy has just been published in Public Understanding of Science. w/ great coauthors @lydiamessling.bsky.social @christelvaneck.bsky.social Check it out here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Academia can be hard, lonely, and very discouraging. @christelvaneck.bsky.social is not only phenomenally intelligent, she’s kind, encouraging, and incredibly savvy. Writing papers with her and @yuyaolu.bsky.social has helped me find the joy in research again.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
I should also say that if it were not for @katharinehayhoe.com tagging me in a random post to @christelvaneck.bsky.social on Twitter, then this paper (and a few others) would never have happened. Huzzah for community!
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
These interviews took place back in 2018 as part of my PhD research, and OH BOY was it fun. I was bowled over by people’s generosity and thoughtfulness, and will forever be thankful to my interviewees (listed in the supplementary materials).
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
There’s lots of other delicious quotes packed into this paper – views on funding, speaking as a citizen, the differences for early career researchers, science-based policy, silence as advocacy. If that’s your thing, there’s more in my thesis here: www.academia.edu/43798041/How...
academia.edu
How can climate scientists engage in policy advocacy and preserve their scientific credibility and independence?
Scientists are often wary of engaging in policy advocacy as they fear it may result in the perception of bias in their science or abuse of their position. Whilst advocacy need not always result in bia...
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Plus different audiences may interpret things differently and take a different view on whether it’s "all acceptable advocacy", or "out of order". All we’re doing in this table is mapping out the main concerns and their (shared) roots.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Caveat – don’t use this table as a binary conceptual tool to classify advocacy actions as being either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Advocacy actions can be driven by multiple justifications.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Bung them in a table (because who doesn’t love a little table?) and it looks like this:
A table showing the categorisation of concerns relating to both engaging in climate advocacy or avoiding advocacy.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Scientists share the same fundamental concerns: 1) to preserve the integrity and credibility of science, 2) to fulfil the role of a scientist (and citizen) in society. These two main concerns emerged as four main justifications for either being in favour of advocacy or against it.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
What did we find? The arguments that scientists gave in favour of advocacy were the same ones that others used in arguing against advocacy. This might help explain why this topic is hotly contested and sometimes feels like we’re talking past each other.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
📣NEW PAPER: ‘Advocacy - defending science or destroying it?’ Our interviews with 47 climate scientists provide detailed explanations on all the good things about policy advocacy and the legitimate concerns with threats to the integrity and credibility of science. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
I research how scientists bring all of themselves to their research. Here's something from a survey I did with 50 scientists and few interviews: How scientists think about the relationship between creating excellent scientific evidence and being a person of faith. 👇
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Reposted by Lydia Messling
Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 26/11/2024
Big news! The 'all scientists who do climate' feed now stands at: 🌏 3500 MEMBERS 🌎 ...more than it ever had on Twitter! Huge welcome to #3949, my fav colleague @brasmus.bsky.social, and #3500, @johndparker.bsky.social, who says he’s “not good at social media.” No longer, John! Pin it here ⬇️
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Rebecca Willis @bankfieldbecky.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
At the COP29 climate summit, Keir Starmer said he wasn't going to tell people how to live their lives. That's not what people want to hear. I've written about what he could have said instead. climatecitizens.org.uk/climate-citi...
climatecitizens.org.uk
Climate Citizens Blog - Climate Citizens | Lancaster University | Assembly on climate change
Bringing climate policy to the people. Climate Citizens is a project run out of Lancaster University aiming to change how people engage with the creation of climate policy.
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Climate Citizens @climatecitizens.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
New blog post from Rebecca Willis on why Keir Starmer said the wrong thing at COP 29: people want government to speak up, not shut up, on climate change. climatecitizens.org.uk/climate-citi...
climatecitizens.org.uk
Climate Citizens Blog - Climate Citizens | Lancaster University | Assembly on climate change
Bringing climate policy to the people. Climate Citizens is a project run out of Lancaster University aiming to change how people engage with the creation of climate policy.
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Reposted by Lydia Messling
Climate Citizens @climatecitizens.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
🚨 NEW REPORT: We summarise our recent research on how the public currently feel about climate change – what action they want and what they find frustrating – and offer three priorities for policy makers that will help achieve better climate action. climatecitizens.org.uk/new-report-p... 1/5
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Keir is out of touch saying "what we're not going to do, is start telling people how to live their lives" as sounds like government is 'hands-off' with climate. All the research points to a very serious desire for government to get involved and deliver the scale change needed to live our lives.
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
HA. In doing my research on scientists and advocacy, I did a bunch of interviews with scientists and had them full verbatim transcribed. Took me AGES to correct all the 'Vulcanologist's for 'volcanologist' from the transcriber. Probably still a few rogue Vulcans in there...
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 21/11/2024
I'm seeing a lot of free-floating hot takes these days re what scientists "should" and "shouldn't" be doing in today's increasingly anti-science atmosphere. Philosophers have been discussing this topic for centuries and there is a rich + robust body of scholarship on this topic. As we discuss here.
nature.com
Challenging the neutrality myth in climate science and activism - npj Climate Action
We argue that Büntgen’s (2024) claim that climate science must be separated from activism is fundamentally flawed. Activism does not inherently lead to biased science and striving for value-free scien...
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
I’m *so* looking forward to being proven wrong. But excuse me whilst I mourn a little for my old classics, and brace for those starting up the old record of the ‘eco-warriors have come to ruining everything’… 6/6
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
This probably would have been more palatable for the old petrol heads and die-hard fans too (I have no idea how they feel about the rebrand, but a quick google suggests it’s a no-likey for them too). 5/6
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
It would have been far more powerful, I think, (not to mention pretty classy and good for climate) to have kept the old branding and gone “Yeah, we’re all electric now. It was a no brainer. No need to make a big deal out of it”. 4/6
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
I totally get why they’ve gone for a rebrand. I just think a) it’s not that great and b) it gives the message that new green tech replaces the old faithful, rather than becoming the new true faithful. 3/6
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
I used to want to be a car mechanic. I dreamed of refitting old classic cars with electric engines – all style and class without burning fossil fuel. So I was very excited about JLR’s move to electric. 2/6
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Whilst also looking like it’s taken its inspiration from a Sponge Bob meme, the new jaguar branding ain’t good for climate comms either. 1/6 #jaguar #climatecomms #JLR #wholivesinapineappleunderatree
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
They can, of course, do things that do undermine too, but advocacy in and of itself need not do that. Let us know what you think! 4/4
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Science should be objective, and the people that do it - our brilliant climate scientists - can find good ways of engaging in policy advocacy that do not undermine the integrity and credibility of science (or their own credibility). 3/4
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Based on the paper I wrote with @christelvaneck.bsky.social and @katharinehayhoe.com (here: www.nature.com/articles/s44...) we talk about how climate science is not, cannot, and should not be neutral. 2/4
nature.com
Challenging the neutrality myth in climate science and activism - npj Climate Action
We argue that Büntgen’s (2024) claim that climate science must be separated from activism is fundamentally flawed. Activism does not inherently lead to biased science and striving for value-free scien...
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Lydia Messling @lydiamessling.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Great speaking with David Powell about climate scientists and advocacy on this podcast 👇 He's done an epic edit to tell a bit more of a story and get us thinking about the issues and non-issues with scientists engaging in advocacy - chapeaux! 1/4 www.yourbrainonclimate.com/1817605/epis...
yourbrainonclimate.com
The neutrality myth, with Lydia Messling - Your Brain On Climate
Is climate science 'neutral'? Should it be? Are humans even capable of being neutral about anything? In this new-format episode, I dig into accusations that climate scientists risk undermining their w...
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