(WSVN) - More than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries across the globe are warning that humans need to change their behaviors in order to save the Earth.
William Ripple, a professor at Oregon State, started the campaign #ScientistsWarningToHumanity on Twitter. It has since added more than 15,000 signatures.
Ripple stumbled across a similar warning that was first published in 1992 by about 1,500 scientists and decided to revisit the concerns, according to the CBC.
By collecting global data for several different variables, Ripple and a graduate student found a decline in freshwater availability, unsustainable freshwater fisheries, ocean dead zones, forest losses, dwindling biodiversity, climate change and population growth.
“The trends are alarming, and they speak for themselves,” Ripple told the news outlet.
Ripple’s findings weren’t all negative. He said he found a rapid decline in ozone depletion.
Carbon emissions have increased by 62 percent since 1992, according to Ripple, and average global temperatures have paralleled that change.
Ripple also says the population has gone up by two billion since 1992, marking a 35 percent increase. The world’s population has thus caused an increase in consumerism, which has taxed the environment.
“The chief concern isn’t really the human numbers as such. It’s the impact we have,” Virginia Tech professor Eileen Crist told the news outlet.
Crist says consumption patterns won’t go up if family size is reduced moving forward. Crist also explained that “we are in the throes of a mass extinction event.” She says it’s something that will inevitably happen if we “continue to operate as business-as-usual.”
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