Over 14,000 Scientists Declare Worldwide Climate Emergency

Whether you believe it or not, climate change is here and it is burning our planet to ashes. It comes as no surprise as over 14,000 scientists declare a worldwide climate emergency, calling for urgent climate action and warning that several tipping points are now imminent.

Nearly two years ago, 11,000 scientists from 153 countries came together to indicate that the world is facing a climate emergency. Now, the research team behind the declaration once again has issued a warning saying that the earth’s vital signs have continued to deteriorate and it is rapidly moving toward an ultimate doom.

In a new research, published in the journal BioScience, the scientists said that “there has been an unprecedented surge in climate-related disasters since 2019” – including record-breaking heatwaves and wildfires in Australia and the western US, devastating hurricanes and cyclones in parts of South Asia and Africa, and severe flooding episodes in South America and Southeast Asia.

The study also addressed the governments that have consistently failed to tackle “the overexploitation of the earth,” which has been described as the root cause of the crisis.

Thousands of scientists declare a worldwide climate emergency while warning that several tipping points are now imminent | Image: Gui Bortolotto

Researchers relied on “vital signs” to measure the health of the planet for this study, which included deforestation, carbon emissions, glacier density and sea-ice extent. Out of 31 signs, they found that 18 have hit record highs or lows.

For instance, regardless of a drop in pollution during the coronavirus pandemic, atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane levels have hit all-time highs in 2021. Greenland and Antarctica exhibited all-time low levels of ice mass and glaciers that are melting 31 percent faster than they did in the past 15 years.

Meanwhile, ocean heat and global sea levels have set new records since 2019 and the annual loss rate of the Brazilian Amazon has reached a 12-year high in 2020. The study credited fire, drought and logging as the primary causes that have intensely affected parts of the Brazilian Amazon, which is now acting as a source of carbon rather than a carbon sink.

Tim Lenton, the director of the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute and study co-author, said,

We need to respond to the evidence that we are hitting climate tipping points with equally urgent action to decarbonise the global economy and start restoring instead of destroying nature.

The study indicated that there was startling evidence that the planet is nearing or has already crossed many climate tipping points. These include melting of the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets, which may be irreparable on a centuries-long time scale, regardless of how or if humankind reduced its emissions.

It also repeated six points on which humans need to work – eliminating fossil fuels, reducing pollutants, restoring ecosystems, switching to plant-based diets, moving away from indefinite growth models and controlling the human population.

There has been a surge in natural disasters such as wildfires, floods, and hurricanes since 2019 | Image: Maksim Slutsky/AP

Researchers also called for climate change education to be included in school curriculum globally to educate young minds about the importance and ways to a secure and green future.

They also proposed a plan with three emergency responses to the climate emergency, which consisted of “a significant carbon price,” a global phase-out and ban of fossil fuels, and the development of tactical climate reserves such as restoring and maintaining carbon sinks and biodiversity hot spots.

Given the outcomes of the study, it has become clear that there is no time for any more discussion on climate action as now is the time to act. Moreover, it is the last stand where humankind can make a difference in order to save the planet from doom.

Via: Aljazeera