In a recent paper published in the journal BioScience, William Ripple and colleagues examine the progress made by humans in tackling various environmental challenges over the last 25 years. For this, the authors look at the global trends for several key environmental metrics like the available per capita freshwater resources, total forest cover, abundance of vertebrate species, etc.

Summarily, they find that the state of the environment is scary and is steadily getting worse. To quote the authors “we have unleashed a mass extinction event, the sixth in roughly 540 million years, wherein many current life forms could be annihilated or at least committed to extinction by the end of this century.” The authors also prescribe a large number of actions that need to be undertaken urgently to ameliorate the current situation.

There is no dearth of papers calling attention to the fragile state of global environment. What makes the present paper different is the fact that more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries of the world have formally expressed support for the content of this paper. This makes it perhaps the biggest formal endorsement of a scientific article by the scientific community. Given the significance of climate change for every human being on the planet, this is a much needed step. However, for any improvement in the present state-of-affairs, the entire society needs to act together. As the authors point out “Sustainability transitions come about in diverse ways, and all require civil-society pressure and evidence-based advocacy, political leadership, and a solid understanding of policy instruments, markets, and other drivers.”

 

Sutirth Dey is an Associate Professor of Biology at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune.