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Photograph series depicting the impacts of climate-related disasters. First row (left to right): Rescue of people stranded by floods in the city of Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil, 2024; Duda Fortes, Agência RBS), “Drought in Ethiopia due to rains unrealised” (Ethiopia, 2011; Oxfam East Africa; CC BY 2.0). Second row: Firefighters contain a bushfire burning around the town of Aberdare (Australia, 2013; Quarrie Photography, Jeff Walsh, Cass Hodge; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0), The aftermath of Hurricane Matthew (Haiti, 2016; UN Photo/Logan Abassi; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Third row: Inspection of a storm-damaged roadway in California (United States, 2023; Andrew Avitt/USDA Forest Service), Remnants of a house on Leyte island that was destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan (The Philippines, 2013; Trocaire/Wikimedia; CC BY 2.0). All quotes are from the Climate Visuals project (https://climatevisuals.org). See supplemental file S1 for details and more pictures.
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Our aim in the present article is to communicate directly to researchers, policymakers, and the public. As scientists and academics, we feel it is our moral duty and that of our institutions to alert humanity to the growing threats that we face as clearly as possible and to show leadership in addressing them. In this report, we analyze the latest t...
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... In the current times of worsening climate change, more extreme environmental events, and increasing biodiversity loss, among other ecological challenges, humanity needs as many people as possible to understand and use ecological science, especially regarding its applications to environmental management and policy development (Ripple et al. 2024). Ensuring that future societies and workforces are better positioned to address social-ecological challenges, particularly those related to environmental injustices and inequalities, should be a central goal for ecology education (Johnson and Mappin 2005, Lewinsohn et al. 2015, Martusewicz et al. 2020, Kellogg 2023. ...
... In these "perilous times on planet Earth" (Ripple et al. 2024), ecologists have critical responsibilities to consider how to teach ecology more effectively to a larger number of and more diverse students. Taking cues from ecopsychology and ecotherapy (Box 2), the entire community of ecologists must explicitly and critically think about what content and pedagogies are most likely to help undergraduate students and people of all ages increase their appreciation, curiosity, wonder, hope, and excitement about nature, and their personal agency for contributing to its protection and sustainable management (e.g., Ojala 2017, Beavington 2021, Buijs and Jacobs 2021, Betro 2024, Ough Dealy et al. 2024, regardless of where they live, their backgrounds, worldviews, and identities. ...
Educating more students about ecology and its beneficial applications to societal issues is urgent yet challenging. To address this challenge, diversifying ecology education is a key way to make ecology more inclusive, accessible, and interdisciplinary for more people than ever. Advancing this goal requires ecology educators to develop a more expansive view of (1) how to engage more diverse undergraduate students in ecology courses, especially those from historically underrepresented groups and non‐majors, (2) the interdisciplinarity of content in those courses, and (3) the learner‐centered pedagogies used to engage students. We suggest ways that ecologists can advance “ecology education for everyone” including focusing on connecting ecology to students' everyday lives and local (urbanized) places; applying ecology to solving problems in social–ecological systems; introducing students to the diversity of worldviews about science and nature; and adopting authentic teaching practices such as course‐based undergraduate research, service learning, and reflective practices. Through such efforts, ecology education can become more positivistic and pluralistic and help students better appreciate the value of ecology for society and use their ecological literacy to engage in improving local communities and ecosystems. Successful diversification of ecology education should also benefit the discipline of ecology as more diverse students decide to take more ecology courses, potentially pursue ecology‐related careers, and support ecologically based decision‐making for a more sustainable and environmentally just future for all people.
... These actions come amid increasingly dire warnings from scientists that the world's largest industrial economies must rapidly phase out coal, oil and gas --the burning of which is the leading source of human-caused climate change --to avert irreversible climate catastrophe (W. J. Ripple et al., Bioscience 74, biae087;2024). ...
Within hours of taking office, US President Donald Trump had announced a series of executive orders and policies to boost oil and gas production, roll back environmental protections, undo environmental-justice initiatives enacted by former President Joe Biden and withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and appointed fossil-fuel industry executives who reject mainstream climate science to his cabinet.
... Rooted in responsibly harvested raw materials, the efficient conversion and long-term sequestration of carbon in circular materials should be the central goal of future policies outlining the utilization of forest biomass 10 . Whether the material will be used in construction or in other sectors, to mitigate climate change it will be necessary to replace carbon-intensive materials rather than create additional demand 11 . Moreover, to prevent the early release of the carbon stored within the wood, long-term circularity needs to be implemented in the initial materials and must be followed through during reuse and recycling before the stored carbon becomes a feedstock to regrow our forests at the materials' end of life. ...
Wooden bioresources are key materials for the transition to a circular bioeconomy, yet widespread adoption, for example in construction, still lags. Growth is stalled by policy gaps, resource debates and limited public confidence. A blueprint for global initiatives can help realize the full potential of bio-based materials. Fulltext (read only) here: https://rdcu.be/d8r7y
... In October 2024, a group of leading climate scientists wrote 'We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster… We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis' (Ripple et al. 2024). This cautionary statement underscores an urgent reality: the climate crisis is no longer a distant threat -it is here, now, reshaping lives, economies, and ecosystems across the globe. ...
... It is time to recognize that the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement aim of limiting heating by the year 2100 to 2.0, and ideally 1.5 °C above pre-industrial temperature levels cannot be met under current dynamics. Global temperatures have passed the 1.5 °C threshold in 2023and continue beyond it since, at an accelerating rate, and without significantly effective corrective action [3]. This article outlines reasons for this, and ten key policy directions for moving forward. ...
International climate negotiations [1] have not achieved
their objectives of halting or even slowing global heating.
Current developments in deglaciation, temperature rise
and ocean acidification exceed the projected trajectories,
taking much of the scientific community by surprise [2].
The policy and action frameworks established to confront
the challenge do not match its enormity, nor the speed in
which it unfolds.
It is time to recognize that the 2015 Paris Climate
Agreement aim of limiting heating by the year 2100 to
2.0, and ideally 1.5 °C above pre-industrial temperature
levels cannot be met under current dynamics. Global
temperatures have passed the 1.5 °C threshold in 2023—
and continue beyond it since, at an accelerating rate, and
without significantly effective corrective action [3]. This
article outlines reasons for this, and ten key policy direc-
tions for moving forward. These are founded on the rec-
ognition that not individual, narrowly conceived efforts
promise success, but only a combination of mutually
reinforcing measures can help the recovery of a healthy
biosphere. It promises to halt further decline and arrive
at climate stabilization. Only a healthy biosphere is capa-
ble of stabilizing the global climate. All we can do—and
everything we must do—is assist the process of regener-
ating and safeguarding this capacity.
... Around 16% of the Pan-Amazon's original forest cover have been deforested by 2023 (according to JRC-TMF combined with data from Mazur et al. 2024 [18]), while between 17 and 38% are estimated to be degraded [19,20], mostly by illegal or unsustainable selective logging, fire, edge effects and drought-induced mortality [21]. While deforestation has decreased in 2023 in the Amazon region by almost 19% compared to year 2022 (see chapter 2), forest degradation has skyrocketed mostly due to forest fires. ...
The Amazon rainforest, a vital global ecosystem, is facing significant threats from the loss of intact forest through deforestation and degradation. This report provides an overview of recent forest changes in the Amazon, focusing on Brazil, the country with the largest portion of the Amazon. Based on the JRC cloud-computed, remote sensing – based, large-scale tropical forest monitoring approach, maps and statistical estimates on forest cover changes from 1990 – 2023 are provided in this report for the whole region as well as for the different Amazon countries. The report contains a discussion about the drivers of deforestation, such as agricultural expansion, and forest degradation (e.g. illegal or unsustainable selective logging, forest fires). These activities have severe consequences for biodiversity, climate regulation, and the livelihoods of millions of people. In addition, a dedicated chapter on forest regrowth in the Amazon biome shows its spatial distribution and its changes over time, and provides a detailed analysis of its growth dynamics and their value regarding biodiversity and carbon storage. Understanding the changes in the forest is crucial for developing effective strategies to protect the Amazon. By identifying vulnerable areas and understanding the underlying drivers of deforestation, forest degradation and regrowth, informed and targeted interventions can be planned and implemented to mitigate these threats.
... Literature shows that there are different approaches to setting limit values from a target top-down or empirical bottom-up approach. The top-down approach may be based on planetary boundaries (Ripple et al., 2024) In contrast, the bottom-up approach is based on observations of best practices to develop limit value trajectories. For example, benchmark values can be derived from a set of reference buildings at the national level and linked to statistical indicators. ...
... Despite continuous decline, malaria remains a major public health problem in India, with almost 95% of the country's population living in malaria-endemic areas and more than 80% of the malaria cases reported from 20% of the population living in tribal hills [7]. Apart from major challenges such as insufficient surveillance, slow and aggregated data reporting, complex epidemiological features that include involvement of different species of parasites, vectors, susceptible human living in rural and forested areas [8,9], the development of resistance in parasites to antimalarial drugs, the development of resistance in vectors to the insecticides [10], and a lack of available health care systems with diagnostic and treatment facilities [11], climate change due to global warming has not gained the attention it deserves in terms of its impact on malaria control. Although evidence to correlate climatic factors such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity on malaria transmission is available, the long-term impact on the trend of malaria incidence is scanty [1,12]. ...
... Dis. 2024,9, 309 ...
Malaria remains a significant public health problem in India. Although temperature influences Anopheline mosquito feeding intervals, population density, and longevity, the reproductive potential of the Plasmodium parasite and rainfall influence the availability of larval habitats, and evidence to correlate the impact of climatic factors on the incidence of malaria is sparse. Understanding the influence of climatic factors on malaria transmission will help us predict the future spread and intensification of the disease. The present study aimed to determine the impact of temporal trend of climatic factors such as annual average maximum, minimum, mean temperature, and rainfall on the annual incidence of malaria cases in India for a period of 61 years from 1961 to 2021 and relative humidity for a period of 41 years from 1981 to 2021. Two different analyses were performed. In the first analysis, the annual incidence of malaria and meteorological parameters such as annual maximum, minimum, and mean temperature, annual rainfall, and relative humidity were plotted separately in the graph to see if the temporal trend of climatic factors had any coherence or influence over the annual incidence of malaria cases. In the second analysis, a scatter plot was used to determine the relationship of the incidence of malaria in response to associated climatic factors. The incidence of malaria per million population was also calculated. In the first analysis, the annual malaria cases showed a negative correlation of varying degrees with relative humidity, minimum, maximum, and mean temperature, except rainfall, which showed a positive correlation. In the second analysis, the scatter plot showed that the rainfall had a positive correlation with malaria cases, and the rest of the climatic factors, such as temperature and humidity, had negative correlations of varying degrees. Out of the total 61 years studied, in 29 years, malaria cases increased more than 1000 square root counts when the minimum temperature was at 18–19 °C; counts also increased over a period of 33 years when the maximum temperature was 30–31 °C, over 37 years when the mean temperature was 24–25 °C, over 20 years when the rainfall was in the range of 100–120, and over a period of 29 years when the relative humidity was at 55–65%. While the rainfall showed a strong positive correlation with the annual incidence of malaria cases, the temperature and relative humidity showed negative correlations of various degrees. The increasing temperature may push the boundaries of malaria towards higher altitude and northern sub-tropical areas from the southern peninsular region. Although scanty rainfall reduces the transmission, increases in the same would increase the malaria incidence in India.
... This paradigm shift is now necessary, as six out of nine planetary boundaries have already been crossed (Richardson et al. 2023), and current policies continue to put us on a path toward approximately 2.7 degrees Celsius ( • C) peak warming by 2100 (UNEP 2023). Humanity has now brought the planet into climatic conditions never witnessed before in human history (Ripple et al. 2024). ...
... From this perspective, youth research is a key discipline engaged in listening to, collaborating with, and studying young generations. It, therefore, has a crucial role in addressing the "planetary mess" created by so-called "development", "westernization", or "industrialization", which has posed a deadly threat to all living beings and the habitability of the planet for future generations (Ripple et al. 2024). ...
Youth research has, for decades, focused on examining current societal conditions and their potential shortcomings for young people in areas such as education, income, work, and gender equality. However, it has been less common to integrate planetary boundaries and so-called “overshoot” areas—such as biodiversity loss or climate change—into youth research. This paradigm shift is increasingly necessary, as six out of nine planetary boundaries have already been crossed, and the planet remains on track for approximately 2.7 degrees Celsius (°C) peak warming by 2100. In addition to planetary threats, Morocco faces social challenges, particularly high unemployment. Unemployment is highest among young people aged 15 to 24, reaching 25% over the past decade, nearly double the global youth unemployment rate. This article analyzes a case study we refer to as the “Gardening School” in Morocco, a country facing significant climate stress. It aims to (a) explore new methods for conducting more globally oriented youth research that is ethical and environmentally friendly and (b) examine the wellbeing of young people and their environment, as well as how to support and strengthen both. The findings of this article highlight the potential for youth research to develop new approaches, especially when conducted alongside young people and educational and sustainable environments. These environments enable younger generations to deepen their connection to and understanding of biodiversity, sustainability, and climate change, while learning to use natural resources in a sustainable and ethical manner. This approach ultimately aims to ensure a livable future for the coming generations and foster sustainable employment opportunities.
... These approaches are being researched as temporary measures to potentially mask, slow, or reduce climate change while other measures, such as transitioning to clean energy and implementing large-scale carbon removal methods (e.g., afforestation, direct air capture, and carbon capture and storage), work to stabilise atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. [4]. Moreover, the global annual damages from climate change are projected to cost between $19 to 59 trillion dollars in 2049, with the greatest losses affecting lower latitude regions, which have lower historical emissions and present-day income [5]. ...
... Given these escalating risks, discussions surrounding SRM are expanding to encompass both its potential to temporarily mitigate the effects of climate change and the significant uncertainties and risks associated with its implementation. The 2024 State of the Climate report notes ongoing SRM research and argues for a broadened research agenda [4]. There is growing interest in the potential for SRM techniques to temporarily mitigate the effects of climate change. ...
... The particles typically remain suspended in the stratosphere for a year or two. 4. Monitoring and maintenance: continuous injections of SO2 are required to maintain a persistent aerosol layer as the aerosols eventually settle out of the stratosphere. ...