15 thousand scientists signed a letter to Humanity

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

A new depressing "warning to humanity" about the danger has been signed by 15,000 scientists from around the world.

The message complements a warning, signed by 1,700 people, sent by the Union of Concerned Scientists 25 years ago. However, experts say that the picture has become much worse than in 1992, and almost all the then problems have become aggravated, informs The Independent.

Humanity is still facing an existential threat of extinction due to the consumption of limited resources by a rapidly growing population, they warn. And “academics, influential media, and ordinary citizens” are not making enough efforts to tackle the problems.

If the world does not take appropriate action soon, it will face a catastrophic loss of biodiversity and countless human suffering.

Since the first letter was written, only the hole in the ozone layer has shrunk. Scientists are urging humanity to use this as an example of what can happen when it acts decisively. However, every other threat has only escalated, they write, and little time is left to prevent these changes from becoming irreversible.

There are several reasons for hope, the letter notes. However, humanity is not doing enough to make the most of them, and soon will not be able to change its destiny.

The warning message highlighted many environmental disasters, including catastrophic climate change, deforestation, mass extinction of species, ocean dead zones and lack of access to fresh water.

In the online journal BioScience, scientists led by leading American ecologist Professor William Ripple of Oregon State University, USA, wrote: “Humanity is now receiving a second message … We are threatening our future without limiting our intense, yet geographically and demographically uneven material consumption and not realizing the constant rapid population growth as the main factor of many environmental and even social threats."

“Not being able to adequately limit population growth, reassessing the role of the economy, revealing the failure to reduce greenhouse gases, stimulate renewable energy sources, protect the living environment, restore ecosystems, limit pollution, stop the manifestation and development of invasive alien species, humanity does not take the necessary retaliatory steps. to protect our biosphere that is under threat."

In their first warning, scientists, including most of the world's Nobel laureates, argued that human influence on the natural world is likely to lead to "great human disaster."

The new message was signed by 15,364 scientists from 184 countries, who agreed to indicate their names as signatories.

The authors referred to data from government agencies, non-profit organizations, and individual researchers to emphasize that environmental impacts could result in “significant and irreversible harm” to the Earth.

Professor Ripple said: "The signers of this second warning are not just sounding the alarm, they are recognizing clear signs that we are on a course of instability."

"We hope that our document will spark a widespread public debate about the global environment and climate."

Progress has been made in some areas, with declines in ozone-depleting chemicals and an increase in renewable energy, but not enough compared to the destructive prevailing trends, scientists say.

They noted that over the past 25 years:

• The amount of drinking water per capita worldwide has decreased by 26%.
• The number of dead zones in the ocean - places where few can survive due to pollution and oxygen deprivation - has risen by 75%.
• About 300 million hectares of forest were lost, mainly to pave the way to agricultural land.
• Global carbon dioxide emissions and average temperatures have increased significantly.
• The human population has grown by 35%.
• The total number of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish in the world has decreased by 29%.

Profile Ripple and his colleagues have created a new independent organization called the Alliance of World Scientists, which has raised concerns about environmental sustainability and the fate of humanity.