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Climate scientists hold consolidated knowledge of catastrophic risk while operating within institutions that have repeatedly failed to generate commensurate political response. What does it mean to live and work within that contradiction, and what does it reveal about the role of scientific expertise in a declared emergency? This talk presents findings from qualitative research interviewing climate scientists across a spectrum of engagement with the climate emergency movement, exploring how they make sense of the crisis they study, how they experience the weight of knowing, and how they navigate the gap between understanding and action.

The research develops the concept of the "Cassandra condition" and asks uncomfortable questions about scientific responsibility, neutrality, and advocacy, questions that are deeply personal and professional for earth system scientists working at the boundary between knowledge production and planetary crisis. This talk aims to open an honest conversation about what the scientific community owes the public, what it owes itself, and whether the inherited norms of the profession are adequate to the moment.