Stockholm (NordSIP) – Thousands of scientists have endorsed a renewed call to warn the public about the emergency of addressing climate change in an article published in the academic journal BioScience. “We declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency,” the article begins.
The article was co-authored by William J Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas M Newsome, Phoebe Barnard, William R Moomaw, of Oregon State University, the University of Sydney, the University of Cape Town and Tufts University.
“To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live, [which] entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems.”
Six Critical Steps to Tackle Climate Change
The scientists suggest “six critical steps to tackle the climate emergency”. The steps include replacing fossil fuels with renewables, reducing climate pollutants such as methane and carbon protecting. Third on the to-do list is restoring our ecosystems, by which they mean stopping land clearing.
The authors also suggest a reduction in meat consumption as well as a shift in economic goals. The idea is to move away from an interest in improving GDP and looking at human health and wellbeing instead. Finally, the authors also suggest slowing down and stabilising human population growth.
“The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity,” the authors continue.
A Renewed Call to Action
The call to action echoes similar warning in a similar article published in 2017, where the authors gathered 15,000 endorsements from scientists around the globe for the same call.
“We are jeopardising our future by not reining in our intense but geographically and demographically uneven material consumption and by not perceiving continued rapid population growth as a primary driver behind many ecological and even societal threats,” the 2017 article stated.
“Soon, it will be too late to shift course away from our failing trajectory, and time is running out. We must recognise, in our day-to-day lives and in our governing institutions, that Earth with all its life is our only home,” the article concluded.
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