Climate
crisis: 11,000 scientists warn of ‘untold suffering’
Statement
sets out ‘vital signs’ as indicators of magnitude of the climate emergency
Most
countries’ climate plans ‘totally inadequate’ – experts
Damian
Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Tue 5 Nov
2019 15.00 GMTLast modified on Tue 5 Nov 2019 17.51 GMT
The world’s
people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major
transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than
11,000 scientists.
“We declare
clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency,” it
states. “To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. [This]
entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and
interacts with natural ecosystems.”
There is no
time to lose, the scientists say: “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
statement is published in the journal BioScience on the 40th anniversary of the
first world climate conference, which was held in Geneva in 1979. The statement
was a collaboration of dozens of scientists and endorsed by further 11,000 from
153 nations. The scientists say the urgent changes needed include ending
population growth, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, halting forest
destruction and slashing meat eating.
Prof
William Ripple, of Oregon State University and the lead author of the
statement, said he was driven to initiate it by the increase in extreme weather
he was seeing. A key aim of the warning is to set out a full range of “vital
sign” indicators of the causes and effects of climate breakdown, rather than
only carbon emissions and surface temperature rise.
“A broader
set of indicators should be monitored, including human population growth, meat
consumption, tree-cover loss, energy consumption, fossil-fuel subsidies and
annual economic losses to extreme weather events,” said co-author Thomas
Newsome, of the University of Sydney.
Other
“profoundly troubling signs from human activities” selected by the scientists
include booming air passenger numbers and world GDP growth. “The climate crisis
is closely linked to excessive consumption of the wealthy lifestyle,” they
said.
As a result
of these human activities, there are “especially disturbing” trends of
increasing land and ocean temperatures, rising sea levels and extreme weather
events, the scientists said: “Despite 40 years of global climate negotiations,
with few exceptions, we have have largely failed to address this predicament.
Especially worrisome are potential irreversible climate tipping points. These
climate chain reactions could cause significant disruptions to ecosystems,
society, and economies, potentially making large areas of Earth uninhabitable.”
“We urge
widespread use of the vital signs [to] allow policymakers and the public to
understand the magnitude of the crisis, realign priorities and track progress,”
the scientists said.
“You don’t
need to be a rocket scientist to look at the graphs and know things are going
wrong,” said Newsome. “But it is not too late.” The scientists identify some
encouraging signs, including decreasing global birth rates, increasing solar
and wind power and fossil fuel divestment. Rates of forest destruction in the
Amazon had also been falling until a recent increase under new president Jair
Bolsonaro.
They set
out a series of urgently needed actions:
Use energy
far more efficiently and apply strong carbon taxes to cut fossil fuel use
Stabilise
global population – currently growing by 200,000 people a day – using ethical
approaches such as longer education for girls
End the
destruction of nature and restore forests and mangroves to absorb CO2
Eat mostly
plants and less meat, and reduce food waste
Shift
economic goals away from GDP growth
“The good
news is that such transformative change, with social and economic justice for
all, promises far greater human well-being than does business as usual,” the
scientists said. The recent surge of concern was encouraging, they added, from
the global school strikes to lawsuits against polluters and some nations and
businesses starting to respond.
A warning
of the dangers of pollution and a looming mass extinction of wildlife on Earth,
also led by Ripple, was published in 2017. It was supported by more than 15,000
scientists and read out in parliaments from Canada to Israel. It came 25 years
after the original “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” in 1992, which said:
“A great change in our stewardship of the Earth and the life on it is required,
if vast human misery is to be avoided.”
Ripple said
scientists have a moral obligation to issue warnings of catastrophic threats:
“It is more important than ever that we speak out, based on evidence. It is
time to go beyond just research and publishing, and to go directly to the
citizens and policymakers.”
Since we published our pledg
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