Scientists Warn of “Untold Human Suffering” Without Major Climate Action

And offer 6 ways to address the calamity.

Alberto Pezzali/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Forty years after scientists at the First World Climate Conference in Geneva, Switzerland called on world governments to curb global warming for the good of humanity, 11,000 scientists from 153 countries have declared that we have entered a climate emergency.

The world will endure “untold human suffering” if humans don’t dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, argue Oregon State University’s William J. Ripple and Christopher Wolf—along with a coalition of scientists from around the world—in a paper published today in BioScience. The effects include frequent severe weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires, and the potential for portions of the earth to become uninhabitable if warming passes a “tipping point” and becomes irreversible.

“Climate change has arrived and is accelerating faster than many scientists expected,” says Ripple, who in 2017 published a warning to humanity about global environmental problems which was signed by more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries. “Despite 40 years of major global negotiations, we have continued to conduct business as usual and have failed to address this crisis.”

Their paper identifies a series of climate change “vital signs”—such as carbon dioxide emissions, which rose in 2018 for the first time in four years—intended to “help people understand the magnitude of the problem that we’re facing,” according to Ripple, the lead author of the study.

Graphs measuring how climate change has impacted the earth’s “vital signs” between 1979 and 2019.

BioScience

The paper outlines six steps the world must take to address the calamity: switch from relying on fossil fuels to renewable energy; cut emissions of short-lived pollutants such as methane, much of which comes from the belches and farts of cattle, soot, which comes from burning fossil fuels, and hydrofluorocarbons, which mainly come from refrigerants; restore and protect natural ecosystems from coral reefs to forests to grasslands to help sequester carbon dioxide; eat fewer animal products; convert to a carbon-free economy; and stabilize the population.

Global carbon emissions continue to rise dramatically despite a global consensus that climate change should be treated as an emergency. Amid devastating wildfires, melting glaciers, and rising seas, the paper is yet another warning of the calamitous consequences unchecked climate change will produce.

“Mitigating and adapting to climate change while honoring the diversity of humans entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems,” the authors write. “The good news is that such transformative change, with social and economic justice for all, promises far greater human well-being than does business as usual. We believe that the prospects will be greatest if decision-makers and all of humanity promptly respond to this warning and declaration of a climate emergency and act to sustain life on planet Earth, our only home.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate