UEA humanities cuts reflect inability of academia to confront climate crisis

UEA seems in perennial rounds of severance. I took voluntary redundancy back in 2013 (from a science department). But, hey, this is the neoliberal model of academia we all know and love, is it not? I thank you for your article. I am too leaving academia (though without a severance package or a mission to save the world), after years of struggle with the misalignment of values that comes from working within a model where individuals - staff and students alike - are mere economic units. You are right, there is much about academic life that is enjoyable but like you, I have long realised that better and more useful intellectual work can be done outside the constraints of a system built upon outdated epistemologies.

The failure of academia to lead on the climate change movement isn't just a recent problem with focussing on contribution to economic growth : it goes back to climate science focussing on the physics of climate change rather than leading on the impact of that change. The failure of academia in dealing with the systemic nature of the climate problem cannot be separated from the failure of democracy/capitalism in dealing with the problem.