In a report released on October 26, an international team of scientists claims that the state of the planet Earth has deteriorated to the point that "humanity is unequivocally facing a climate emergency."
16 of the 35 planetary vital signs used by the authors of the research "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency 2022" to measure climate change are at record extremes, according to the report, which was released in the journal BioScience.
The scale of untold human suffering, already immense, is rapidly growing with the escalating number of climate-related disasters. Therefore, we urge scientists, citizens, and world leaders to read this special report and quickly take the necessary actions to avoid the worst effects of climate change, the report warns.
According to the report, 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity," signed by more than 1700 scientists in 1992. Since this original warning, there has been a roughly 40% increase in global greenhouse gas emissions.
"As Earth's temperatures are creeping up, the frequency or magnitude of some types of climate disasters may actually be leaping up," said the University of Sydney's Thomas Newsome. "We urge our fellow scientists around the world to speak out on climate change."
The report further stated that humans are now regularly seeing events and disasters that previously occurred only rarely. Tragically, these disasters disproportionately harm poor people in low-income regions that have made minimal contributions to the buildup of greenhouse gases.
"For example, in the summer of 2022, one-third of Pakistan was flooded, displacing 33 million people and affecting 16 million children."
The report is a follow-up to the 1992 publication of the World Scientists' Warning to Humanity and the 2017 update, World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice, which was co-signed by more than 15,000 scientists from 184 nations.
