Planet’s problems getting ‘more dire’

MIAMI: Twenty-five years after global scientists issued a “warning to humanity” about dangers to the environment, a new update released on Monday said most of the planet’s problems are getting “far worse”.

More than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries signed a letter called “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice,” published in the journal BioScience. The initial version, released in 1992 by the Union of Concerned Scientists, was signed by 1,700 experts.

Since then, nearly all major threats to the environment have grown more dire, particularly the booming world population, which has added two billion people since 1992, a 35% increase.

Other key threats are global warming, unsustainable farming practices, deforestation, lack of fresh water, loss of marine life and growing ocean dead zones.

The document outlines 13 steps that must be taken, including making contraception more widely available and “estimating a scientifically defensible, sustainable human population size for the long term while rallying nations to support that vital goal.” – AFP