More than 15,000 researchers from around the world have signed an update to a 1992 ‘doomsday’ document, warning that “time is running out” in the battle to sustain the future health of the planet.
In 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists released the “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” notice. Signed at the time by a number of Nobel laureates in science, the 25-year-old open letter outlined that mankind is on a “collision course” with the natural word.
Climate change, deforestation, loss of access to fresh water, species extinctions and uncontrolled human population growth are all threatening mankind's and the Earth's future.
Climate change, deforestation, loss of access to fresh water, species extinctions and uncontrolled human population growth are all threatening mankind’s and the Earth's future.
In the second warning letter to the globe, more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries said humans had ‘unleashed a mass extinction event, the sixth in roughly 540 million years'
original warning letter
WARNING LETTER
The letter, originally written in 1992 argued human impacts on the natural world were likely to lead to 'vast human misery' and a planet that was 'irretrievably mutilated'.
But a quarter of a century since a majority of the world's living Nobel Laureates united to sign a warning letter about the Earth, scientists argued too little was being done.
They pointed out that in the past 25 years:
- The amount of fresh water available per head of population worldwide has reduced by 26 per cent.
- The number of ocean 'dead zones' - places where little can live because of pollution and oxygen starvation - has increased by 75 per cent.
- Nearly 300 million acres of forest have been lost, mostly to make way for agricultural land.
- Global carbon emissions and average temperatures have shown continued significant increases.
- Human population has risen by 35 per cent.
- Collectively the number of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish in the world has fallen by 29 per cent
“Soon it will be too late to shift course away from our failing trajectory, and time is running out,” the letter warns. “We must recognize, in our day-to-day lives and in our governing institutions, that Earth with all its life is our only home.”