1 Humanity has been Warned...Again!

Planet in Crisis

World scientists have issued several critical warnings that humanity is on a dangerous track. Professor William Laurance, co-author of the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice in 2017, and Ed Gemmell, Managing Director of Scientists Warning Europe, dig into the vital importance of the three World Scientists Warnings and the actions demanded to save our planet from the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Professor William Laurance looks at the content of the warnings, examines the desperate recommendations given, the urgent actions that must be universally taken now and updates the material in the warnings for today's context. He puts this all into the context of his own involvement in the creation of Second Warning, and he looks at what it means for an academic article to gain endorsement by more than 20,000 scientists. Ed Gemmell fills in some of the history of the Scientists Warnings and the effect the warnings had in bringing about his own ecological conversion. He also describes the work of Scientists Warning Europe and the road to COP26.

Professor William Laurance, Patron, Scientists Warning Europe, is a Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. He also holds the Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University, Netherlands. An environmental scientist whose work spans the tropical world, he has written eight books and over 600 scientific and popular articles. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and former President of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. He has received many professional honours, including the Heineken Environment Prize, BBVA Frontiers in Ecology and Conservation Biology Award, the Society for Conservation Biology’s Distinguished Service Award, and the Zoological Society of London’s Outstanding Conservation Achievement Prize. He is director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University, and founded and directs ALERT—the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers—a science-outreach group that reaches 1-2 million readers weekly. He is a four-time winner of Australia’s Best Science Writing Award.

Ed Gemmell, Managing Director, Scientists Warning Europe passionately believes that action to protect the climate is needed now based on the indisputable science. He sees awareness of the three Scientists Warnings and the fact they are signed by tens of thousands of scientists as vital in stimulating that action. After reading the first two warnings Ed sat outside the houses of parliament on 22 July 2019 and read 20,000 of the signatories’ names over the course of 14 hours while streaming live to Facebook. After undertaking his own ecological conversion Ed founded No Disposable Cup Day and Believers Action on Climate Change. He then stood in the 2019 General Election as an independent candidate with only one policy to reverse climate change. As a parish councillor Ed was instrumental in Hazlemere Parish Council making a Climate Emergency Declaration. Ed is a member of Friends of the Earth, a regular speaker, ex-army officer and city lawyer and owner of his own marketing business bringing with him a wide variety of skills to the role of Managing Director for Scientists Warning Europe.

This is the audio from a session held as part of the Planet in Crisis – Creating Action for COP26 global online summit. In November 2020, exactly one year before the official COP26 climate conference, Scientists Warning Europe organised this series of online Pre-COP events to raise awareness, push the conversation, show demand, and drive real action. Over 25 events were attended by more than 2,000 people from across the globe. View video of these sessions here.

Scientists Warning Europe presents and promotes science endorsed solutions which will lead to a just transition for our World to a sustainable and equitable future. Learn more, sign up for updates, and support our work at http://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk.

This podcast series is made possible through the generous help of The Overpopulation Podcast https://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/podcasts and the GrowthBusters podcast about sustainable living. http://www.growthbusters.org/podcast/

LINKS:

Scientists Warning Europe https://scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/

All Three World Scientists’ Warnings https://scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/warnings

Planet in Crisis Pre-COP Video Series https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyl1v07bfIaLHtXjYBtaca3YdlPaKC9Vx