A group of Nobel Laureates have signed a declaration calling for urgent action on climate change

[bananas]

Source: Quartz

In 1955, partly out of urgency and partly out of guilt, a group of 52 Nobel Laureates signed a declaration on Mainau Island in Germany calling for an end to the use of nuclear weapons. The work of some of these prizewinners—including that of Otto Hahn, who discovered nuclear fission—was used to build nuclear weapons. They were horrified their work was turned into technology that could kill billions.

Now, 60 years on, again out of a mix of urgency and guilt, a group of 36 Nobel prizewinners have signed a new Mainau Declaration (pdf) calling for urgent action on climate change. The document is open for other Nobel Laureates to join.

The discoveries of these signatories have mostly improved the quality of life of people around the world, but they now stand horrified at the prospect of what unchecked use of natural resources could do to the future.

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Here is the 2015 declaration in full:

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Read more: http://qz.com/444787/a-group-of-nobel-laureates-have-signed-a-declaration-calling-for-urgent-action-on-climate-change/

[bananas]

1. Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change

Full text from the pdf http://www.lindau-nobel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Mainau-Declaration-2015-EN.pdf

Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change

We undersigned scientists, who have been awarded Nobel Prizes, have come to the shores of Lake Constance in southern Germany, to share insights with promising young researchers, who like us come from around the world. Nearly 60 years ago, here on Mainau, a similar gathering of Nobel Laureates in science issued a declaration of the dangers inherent in the newly found technology of nuclear weapons—a technology derived from advances in basic science. So far we have avoided nuclear war though the threat remains. We believe that our world today faces another threat of comparable magnitude.

Successive generations of scientists have helped create a more and more prosperous world. This prosperity has come at the cost of a rapid rise in the consumption of the world’s resources. If left unchecked, our ever-increasing demand for food, water, and energy will eventually overwhelm the Earth’s ability to satisfy humanity’s needs, and will lead to wholesale human tragedy. Already, scientists who study Earth’s climate are observing the impact of human activity.

In response to the possibility of human-induced climate change, the United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide the world’s leaders a summary of the current state of relevant scientific knowledge. While by no means perfect, we believe that the efforts that have led to the current IPCC Fifth Assessment Report represent the best source of information regarding the present state of knowledge on climate change. We say this not as experts in the field of climate change, but rather as a diverse group of scientists who have a deep respect for and understanding of the integrity of the scientific process.

Although there remains uncertainty as to the precise extent of climate change, the conclusions of the scientific community contained in the latest IPCC report are alarming, especially in the context of the identified risks of maintaining human prosperity in the face of greater than a 2°C rise in average global temperature. The report concludes that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the likely cause of the current global warming of the Earth. Predictions from the range of climate models indicate that this warming will very likely increase the Earth’s temperature over the coming century by more than 2°C above its pre-industrial level unless dramatic reductions are made in anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases over the coming decades.

Based on the IPCC assessment, the world must make rapid progress towards lowering current and future greenhouse gas emissions to minimize the substantial risks of climate change. We believe that the nations of the world must take the opportunity at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015 to take decisive action to limit future global emissions. This endeavor will require the cooperation of all nations, whether developed or developing, and must be sustained into the future in accord with updated scientific assessments. Failure to act will subject future generations of humanity to unconscionable and unacceptable risk.

Mainau Island, Germany
3 July 2015

[Faygo Kid]

2. This and income inequality are the issues of our time.

I am retired now, and I have lived the past, and see the future. It's not good. I won't live to see the worst consequences of climate change, but my progeny will. Don't ever give up.

[bananas]

4. Nuclear war and climate change are the two biggest issues.

This is recognized in the scientists Declaration:

So far we have avoided nuclear war though the threat remains. We believe that our world today faces another threat of comparable magnitude.

[bananas]

5. We have two tasks this century.

Creating a sustainable civilization on Earth, and extending civilization off Earth.

Creating a sustainable civilization on Earth includes most of the things we talk about here: stopping climate change, avoiding nuclear war, plus all the social and economic changes needed.

[bananas]

3. Brian P. Schmidt, Steven Chu, Peter C. Doherty

http://www.chemistryviews.org/details/news/8107911/Nobel_Laureates_Call_For_Climate_Protection.html

Nobel Laureates Call For Climate Protection

Author: ChemistryViews.org
Published: 03 July 2015
Copyright: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

At the final day of the 65th Lindau Noble Laureate Meeting, 36 Nobel Laureates presented a joint declaration discussing the threat of climate change. This Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change was read and signed on Mainau Island, Lake Constance, Germany, on Friday, July 3. At the Lindau meeting, Nobel Laureates and young scientists enjoyed international research dialogue.

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The speaker of this initiative, Professor Brian P. Schmidt, 2011 Physics Nobel Laureate from Australian National University, Canberra, stated that the challenge of the next five years is to get a global plan for the next 50 to 100 years in place. Looking at the Climate Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we have to find out how much CO2 we can put into the atmosphere within the next 50 to 100 years without harming the climate.

Professor Steven Chu, 1997 Physics Nobel Laureate from Stanford University, USA, and one of the initiators of the declaration, said that there are uncertainties about climate change, but we know enough to know the general course of what is going on. He advises that we should not wait 50 years to be absolutely sure what is going to happen. Like the issue with second hand smoke, climate change affects us all. Steven Chu compared it with a fire insurance. “You don’t wait till your house is on fire to take an insurance.”

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Professor Peter C. Doherty, 1996 Physiology and Medicine Noble Laureate from University of Melbourne, Australia, said as politicians care about votes, to progress, scientists and the press need to carry the message out to the general public and to educate them.

60 years ago, in 1955, 51 Nobel Laureates had presented a declaration on Mainau Island of the dangers of nuclear weapons under the initiative of Professor Otto Hahn, 1944 Chemistry Nobel Laureate, .

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[burrowowl]

6. K&R

Thanks for link!