Rabat – A new paper warning of the current rapidly evolving climate crisis has garnered nearly 14,000 signatures from scientists since its publication on July 28. A group of climate scientists published the “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency 2021,” on Wednesday, July 28, receiving immediate backing by thousands of scientists across the world.
The paper argues that the climate crisis has arrived, and is “accelerating faster than many scientists expected.” The paper’s authors, led by lead author professor William J. Ripple warned that “it is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity.”
The widely backed paper calls for six “critical and interrelated steps that governments and the rest of humanity can take to lessen the worst effects of climate change.”
Major interventions required
These steps cover energy, “short-lived pollutants”, nature, food, the economy, and population, calling for a radical “transformation” of the way humanity fulfils most of its primary needs. The papers’ authors describe recent growing awareness of the climate crisis as “encouraging” in the face of political declarations regarding the severity of the current crisis and efforts by activists to take companies guilty of “ecocide” to court.
Facing a “recent global surge of concern”, the scientists involved in the paper from the Alliance of World Scientists are urging world governments for greater action in the face of a possible “catastrophic threat.” The scientists stated they have a “moral obligation to clearly warn humanity,” of the threat of climate change.
The paper is the second major warning from scientists since 2019, when the same group of scientists garnered 11,000 signatures, a number already exceeding within 24 hours of this year’s publication, likely an indication of the severity of the climate crisis.
The paper describes “mounting evidence that we are nearing or have already crossed tipping points associated with critical parts of the Earth system,” calling for “short, frequent, and easily accessible updates,” in preparation for an impending catastrophe.
Morocco contributing to the solution
According to the Climate Change Performance Index 2021, very few governments are making the required investments and changes necessary for progress in the face of the ongoing climate crisis.
The worst offenders are Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Iran, Malaysia, the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea, who all have a “very low” ranking on the progress made. Most countries in the Americas scored worse than Brazil’s “medium” ranking with the exception of Chile, which scored the only “very high” ranking across the two continents.
Very few countries ranked as having made “very high” progress. Top performers include countries across Scandinavia, Britain, Chile, India, and Myanmar, with Morocco being the only country in Africa achieving “very high” levels of progress against climate change.
Morocco currently ranks 7th on the important ranking, highlighting the Kingdom’s expansive efforts to both limit greenhouse emissions, and mitigate possible consequences of the climate crisis. The scientists behind the Climate Change Performance Index issued a similar warning as today’s nearly 14,000 scientists, describing how “to combat the climate crisis effectively, we need to dismantle the business model of the fossil fuel companies worldwide.”
