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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday November 21 2017, @04:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the save-our-planet dept.

https://m.phys.org/news/2017-11-scientists-countries-negative-global-environmental.html

Human well-being will be severely jeopardized by negative trends in some types of environmental harm, such as a changing climate, deforestation, loss of access to fresh water, species extinctions and human population growth, scientists warn in today's issue of BioScience, an international journal.

The viewpoint article—"World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice"—was signed by more than 15,000 scientists in 184 countries.

The warning came with steps that can be taken to reverse negative trends, but the authors suggested that it may take a groundswell of public pressure to convince political leaders to take the right corrective actions. Such activities could include establishing more terrestrial and marine reserves, strengthening enforcement of anti-poaching laws and restraints on wildlife trade, expanding family planning and educational programs for women, promoting a dietary shift toward plant-based foods and massively adopting renewable energy and other "green" technologies.

Global trends have worsened since 1992, the authors wrote, when more than 1,700 scientists—including a majority of the living Nobel laureates at the time—signed a "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" published by the Union of Concerned Scientists. In the last 25 years, trends in nine environmental issues suggest that humanity is continuing to risk its future. However, the article also reports that progress has been made in addressing some trends during this time.

The article was written by an international team led by William Ripple, distinguished professor in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. The authors used data maintained by government agencies, nonprofit organizations and individual researchers to warn of "substantial and irreversible harm" to the Earth.

"Some people might be tempted to dismiss this evidence and think we are just being alarmist," said Ripple. "Scientists are in the business of analyzing data and looking at the long-term consequences. Those who signed this second warning aren't just raising a false alarm. They are acknowledging the obvious signs that we are heading down an unsustainable path. We are hoping that our paper will ignite a wide-spread public debate about the global environment and climate."

Other links:

Here is the official page where you can read the full article, endorse the article, view signatories, and endorsers

Direct link to full article in PDF

The 1992 version


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday November 21 2017, @05:48PM

    by Sulla (5173) on Tuesday November 21 2017, @05:48PM (#599746) Journal

    If their goal is a population decline then Jews, Mormons, and Christians are doing just fine on their own.

    Population for Mormons
    1996 # Mormons: ~14,800,000
    2017 # Mormons: ~15,900,000
    So about 7% increase over and about .7%/year

    Population for Jewish peoples
    Current population is 14.4 - 17.5 million
    Wiki says since 2005 the population growth is .76%/year

    Population for Christians
    Christianity is at 2,184,060,000 estimated to be 2.9 billion by 2050. So 15% over 33 years for .45%/year
    Looks like Christianity is pretty stable except for Catholics (less people becoming Catholics who currently are not Christians) and less people becoming orthodox (both Christians switching and new followers).

    Population for Muslims
    As of 2015 there were 1.7 billion
    The same study that did the christian growth number for 2050 puts Islam at a growth rate of 1.8%/year.

    So if the goal is to cut population growth it would seem that their intention is for Islam to fall by 1% to be in line with Mormons and Jews. At current trends Muslims are estimated to catch up to Christians by 2050. If we are talking final solutions here you would cull a ton of Christians and cap population growth for Islam.

    --
    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam