Scientists warn of Earth's unequivocal climate emergency
Earth's vital signs have deteriorated to the point humanity is "unequivocally" facing a climate emergency, an international coalition of researchers warns in a report published today.
罢丑别听聽report, published in the journal聽BioScience, notes 16 of 35 planetary vital signs the authors use to track climate change are at record extremes.
These signs include human population growth, greater consumption of gas, increasing greenhouse emissions including carbon dioxide and methane, shrinking ice and glaciers, rising sea levels, warming oceans, and climbing numbers of hoofed livestock.
鈥淭hey are all bad, and point to a worsening of the climatic extremes that exacerbate the effects of extreme weather events 鈥� fires, floods and droughts,鈥� said聽Dr Thomas 高清福利片ome, a Senior Lecturer in the University of Sydney鈥檚 School of Life and Environmental Sciences.
鈥淭he majority of these graphs need to trend in the opposite direction.
鈥淚n terms of the changes, if there are major shifts 鈥撀爏uch as decreases in greenhouse gasses聽鈥� we would expect the graphs to be trending away from record highs. Until this happens, the effects of climate change will only worsen.
鈥淲e urge our fellow scientists around the world to speak out on climate change.鈥�
Dr Thomas 高清福利片ome,聽Senior Lecturer in the University of Sydney鈥檚 School of Life and Environmental Sciences.
Dr 高清福利片ome co-authored the report with a dozen global scientists, led by Oregon State University鈥檚 Professor William Ripple and postdoctoral researcher Christopher Wolf.
鈥淟ook at all of these fires, floods and massive storms,鈥� Professor Ripple said. 鈥淭he spectre of climate change is at the door and pounding hard.鈥�
鈥淎s we can see by the annual surges in climate disasters, we are now in the midst of a major climate crisis, with far worse to come if we keep doing things the way we鈥檝e been doing them,鈥� Mr Wolf said. 鈥淲e implore our fellow scientists to join us in advocating for research-based approaches to climate and environmental decision-making.鈥�
Charts showing the growth of the human population and governments who have declared a climate emergency [Credit: World Scientists鈥� Warning of a Climate Emergency 2022].
Other co-authors are from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Independent University Bangladesh, the University of Cambridge, the University of Exeter, Bezos Earth Fund and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
The report is an update of a聽聽published in聽BioScience聽three years ago.聽, an independent organisation formed to be a collective voice on environmental sustainability and human well-being, continues to collect co-signers on the 2019 paper. To date more than 14,700 scientists from 158 countries have signed.
The warning comes five years after Professor Ripple published聽听颈苍听BioScience, which has been co-signed by more than 15,000 scientists in 184 countries.
Charts showing carbon dioxide in parts per million and ocean heat [Credit: World Scientists鈥� Warning of a Climate Emergency 2022].
The present state of climate change
Global greenhouse gas emissions have increased by about 40 percent over the last three decades, despite ringing alarm bells, when more than 1,700 scientists signed the聽聽in 1992.
In March 2022, carbon dioxide levels reached 418 parts per million 鈥� the highest global concentration on record, the authors point out. This year is on course to be one of the hottest in recorded history, and ocean temperature has reached its highest on record.
Climate change has already increased the frequency and intensity of weather events across the globe, a trend the report notes is a likely result of interconnected processes such as overall warming, rain patterns, rising seas and alterations in jet streams.
鈥淩ather than just being more frequent, some extreme weather events are now more intense or sometimes occur closer together in time and space,鈥� said the authors.
鈥淭his compounds damage and decreases recovery time. It may increase the likelihood of extreme risks such as simultaneous global failure of crop yields across multiple major food producing regions.
鈥淎s has been demonstrated by the surge in yearly climate disasters, we are now in a major climate crisis and global catastrophe with far worse in store if we continue with business as usual.鈥�
While the COVID-19 pandemic caused global consumption of fossil fuel to fall in 2020, the authors noted this was temporary and increased significantly in 2021.
鈥淭he COVID lockdown period shows that the closure of transport globally and people moving less did little 鈥� we need major changes in the way we produce energy,鈥� said Dr 高清福利片ome.
The report points out current policies will push the planet to about three degrees Celsius of warming by 2100.