The Earth's «vital signs» are weakening due to the battering they are taking from the global economy, scientists warned today.
These researchers, who are part of a group of more than 14,000 scientists who have called for a global climate emergency, estimate that governments around the world have systematically failed to address the root cause of climate change: «the overexploitation of the Earth's resources».
They highlight «the unprecedented increase», compared to the previous assessment of the situation in 2019, of climate disasters - from floods to heat waves, passing from cyclones to fires.
Of the planet's 31 «vital signs» - which include greenhouse gas emissions, glacier thickness and deforestation - 18 have reached a record high, according to the study published in the journal BioScience.
Despite the reduction of greenhouse gases due to the pandemic covid-19, the concentration of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere reached a record level in 2021.
Glaciers are melting at a rate 31% faster than 15 years earlier and deforestation in the Amazon in Brazil also set a record in 2020.
Farmed animals have reached record numbers, exceeding billions, and now outnumber all humans and wild animals, the study notes.
«We need to act on the evidence that we are heading towards the climate tipping point by taking extraordinary measures to decarbonise the economy and starting to restore nature rather than destroy it,» stresses one of the report's authors, Tim Lenton of the University of Exeter.
Scientists believe that there is «increasing evidence that we are approaching, and indeed have already passed» some tipping points that could push the climate system towards dramatic and irreversible change.
The authors of the study call for immediate and radical action in many areas: reducing the use of fossil fuels, reducing pollution, restoring ecosystems, promoting a diet based on fruits and vegetables, moving away from the current development model and stabilising the world population.
