World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency

“Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat,” notes this article. “On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators presented below, we declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency.”This article – ‘World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency’ – was published in the journal Bioscience on November 5, 2019, by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, Virginia. Its authors are William J. Ripple (Professor of Ecology, Oregon State University), Christopher Wolf (Professor, Agriculture, Food, and Resource Economics Department, Michigan State University), Thomas M. Newsome (from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney), Phoebe Barnard (researcher, policy analyst and Chief Science and Policy Officer at the Conservation Biology Institute, Oregon) and William R. Moomaw (Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy, Tufts University, Massachusetts), and 11,258 scientist signatories from 153 countries.The article states that despite several warnings by scientists, greenhouse gas emissions continue to be on the rise, with increasingly damaging effects on Earth’s climate. The climate crisis is closely linked to excessive consumption – the most affluent countries have mainly been responsible for this, and they typically account for the greatest per capita emissions. The authors suggest six “critical and interrelated steps (in no particular order) that governments, businesses, and the rest of humanity can take to lessen the worst effects of climate change.”The article states: “We believe that the prospects will be greatest if decision-makers and all of humanity promptly respond to this warning and declaration of a climate emergency and act to sustain life on planet Earth, our only home.”