World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice

This compact 3-page overview by William A. Ripple and seven others was published in BioScience Journal and is a follow-on to an earlier 1992 statement.  Signed by >15,000 scientists from 184 countries, now organized as the Alliance of World Scientists, most environmental trends of the past 25 years were seen as “getting far worse.”  Concern is expressed about current and potential damage to planet Earth, the 35% increase in human population since 1992, and “potentially catastrophic” climate change.  Governments are urged to take immediate action as “a moral imperative to current and future generations of humans and other life.”  A 13-point agenda is outlined, calling for renewable energy sources, dietary shifts to mostly plant-based foods, reducing food waste, access to family planning services for all, more outdoor nature education for children, halting conversion of forests and grasslands, well-funded and well-managed nature reserves, and “drastically reducing” consumption of fossil fuels, meat, and other resources.