“Prof strike for climate” is written in thick, irregular black letters on a white board. The board leans against the lectern in the auditorium of Utrecht University. Erik van Sebille is standing behind the podium, giving his inaugural lecture. “Later I walked into the room, very unconventional for an inaugural lecture,” says Van Sebille at the end of May, a week after his speech. “I thought: the beadle will pull me back, but that didn’t happen.”
His professorship seems unconventional in more ways than one. Oceanography and public engagement, is called the chair. Van Sebille leads both a group of oceanographers who research ocean currents and the distribution of plastic in the ocean, and a group including sociologists and communication scientists who look at the relationship between (climate) scientists and society. “These are two separate teaching assignments that come together in one professorship,” says Van Sebille. The combination is not that crazy, he thinks. “The ocean is a really good place to start a conversation about climate.”
How did the conversation with society about oceanography begin for you?
“I became an oceanographer because as a student I was allowed to go on an expedition on the high seas. That felt very cool, Indiana Jones-esque, and while working with the oceanographers there it really became clear to me how little we actually know about the ocean. I then went on to do my PhD here in Utrecht on ocean currents, I had to calculate how water flows from the Indian to the North Atlantic. But I realized that there were probably only two people who were really interested in what I was doing: myself and my supervisor. I then started giving talks at schools about climate change and the importance of the ocean. I wanted to broaden myself and needed to see the bigger picture.”
I noticed that society would like to know what the situation is with that plastic, so I grabbed it with both hands
Later you did research on plastic soup in the ocean, and now you lead a project that aims to trace pieces of ocean plastic to polluters. Is your research becoming more and more engaged?
“The plastic soup research came my way more or less by accident. Actually, I wanted to know how fast water flows from South Africa to Greenland. For such research, oceanographers use floating buoys the size of a volleyball, equipped with GPS and all kinds of other sensors. But the buoys that started off South Africa never made it to Greenland at all, they kept gathering in the middle of the South Atlantic. So the investigation was unsuccessful. Well, my professor then said, why don’t you research that? Why are those buoys hanging there?
“The places where such buoys come together are also the places where plastic soup is created. But why those places are there was unclear, we did not yet know how these currents work. Connecting ocean currents research to plastic really made it a story to tell. I noticed that society would like to know what the situation is with that plastic, so I grabbed it with both hands. Colleagues did ask me at conferences why I was concerned with plastic, after all, the climate is more important. But plastic is a good way to learn more about the ocean.”
The ocean has won a special place in the hearts of many people
Do we really still know so little about the ocean?
“Yes, it is very bad. Our maps of the ocean floor surface are 20 times worse than our maps of the surface of Mars. This is because it is so difficult to make measurements in the ocean. The pressure difference between the earth’s surface and space is 1 bar, the pressure difference between the earth’s surface and the deep sea is 400 bar. In addition, the ocean is so salty. All equipment is broken in no time.
“In the atlas you see clear arrows on maps of the ocean that indicate ocean currents. In reality, the ocean is a swirling mass of water, with high pressure areas, low pressure areas and oceanic currents. Chaos. When we threw a buoy into the water on both sides of the ship at the same time during an expedition, the buoys were 200 kilometers apart a month later. That is also the reason why so few debris have been recovered from the MH370, the plane that crashed in the Gulf of Thailand in 2014.”
In your inaugural lecture you said that you are more concerned about the climate problem than about the plastic problem. Are you going to change course in the direction of the climate?
“I find it difficult to justify myself that I am so concerned with plastic instead of the climate. Society looks very different at the end of this century and that is due to global warming, not plastic. But I’m also a physics nerd, what drives me is that I want to know how the ocean works, that’s why I keep doing plastic research. I hope that by paying attention to plastic, awareness will grow that people have an impact on all parts of the earth. Plastic is still found in the deepest parts of the Mariana Trench, where no human has ever been.
“I think that science communication – and climate communication – can very well take place by talking about the ocean, which is a reason to want to do research into that as well. The ocean has conquered a special place in the hearts of many people, people like to go on holiday to the sea, have a romantic idea. The ocean belongs to no one, which is why you can talk about it well, without pointing fingers, but rather from a sense of shared responsibility.”
We are the experts, it is our duty to take the role of warner
How activist can a professor be, and how activist do you want to be?
“If you ask me whether a scientist is allowed to be an activist, I say yes. As scientists, we are largely paid by society, and I think society should then expect us to indicate what a better option is. Some say that science should only draw up a menu, that society should then make its own choice. That is the position that the IPCC, for example, has long maintained. But I think: we are the experts, it is our duty to take the role of warner.
“Another question is whether it is also effective. Is society’s trust in science damaged when scientists adopt an activist attitude? To what point are scientists credible? So far, the research indicates that it is effective, unless the position is taken too far beyond the expertise. I want to investigate that further. I don’t like crowds, so I’m not going to demonstrate on the A12, but in my own way I hope to contribute to that greatest goal: staying below one and a half degrees.