Eleven Nobel laureates will pool their clout to sound a warning, declaring that mankind is living beyond its means and darkening its future.
At a conference in Hong Kong coinciding with the annual Nobel awards season, holders of the prestigious prize will plead for a revolution in how humans live, work and travel.
Only by switching to smarter, less greedy use of resources can humans avert wrecking the ecosystems on which they depend, the laureates will argue.
The state of affairs is “catastrophic”, Peter Doherty, 1996 co-winner of the Nobel prize for medicine, said in a blunt appraisal.
He is among 11 laureates scheduled to attend the four-day huddle from Wednesday – the fourth in a series of Nobel symposia on the precarious state of the planet.
From global warming, deforestation and soil and water degradation to ocean acidification, chemical pollution and environmentally-triggered diseases, the list of planetary ailments is long and growing, Doherty said.
The worsening crisis means consumers, businesses and policymakers must consider the impact on the planet of every decision they make, he said.
“We need to think sustainability – food sustainability, water sustainability, soil sustainability, sustainability of the atmosphere.”
Overlapping with the 2014 Nobel prize announcements from 6-13 October, the laureates’ gathering will focus on the prospect that global warming could reach double the UN’s targeted ceiling of 2C over pre-industrial times.
Underpinning their concern are new figures highlighting that humanity is living absurdly beyond its means.
According to the latest analysis by environmental organisation WWF, mankind is using 50% more resources than nature can replenish.
“The peril seems imminent,” said US-Australian astrophysicist Brian Schmidt, co-holder of the 2011 Nobel physics prize for demonstrating an acceleration in the expansion of the universe.
The threat derives from “our exponentially growing consumption of resources, required to serve the nine billion or so people who will be on planet Earth by 2050, all of whom want to have lives like we have in the western world,” said Schmidt.
“We are poised to do more damage to the Earth in the next 35 years than we have done in the last 1,000.”
Ada Yonath, an Israeli crystallographer co-awarded the 2009 Nobel for chemistry, said sustainability should not just be seen as conservation of animals and plants.
Humankind should also be much more careful in its use of other life-giving resources like antibiotics.
The spread of drug-resistant bacteria through incorrect use has become a key challenge in “sustainability for the future of humankind”, she stressed.
Several of the laureates suggested a focus on energy.
Dirty fossil fuels must be quickly phased out in favour of cleaner sources – and, just as importantly, the new technology has to spread quickly in emerging economies.
If these countries fail to adopt clean alternatives, they will continue to depend on cheap, plentiful fossil fuels to power their rise out of poverty.
“This will lead to major climate change in the future, and might well destabilise a large fraction of the world’s population due to the change of [climate] conditions,” warned Schmidt.
The climate impact of Asia’s rapid urbanisation will be one of the meeting’s focus areas.
Another concern aired by laureates was the need to strip away blinkers about the danger, while remaining patient in explaining to people why change would be to their advantage.
George Smoot, co-awarded the 2006 physics prize for his insights into the big bang that created the universe, gave the example of LED lighting, a low-carbon substitute for inefficient incandescent bulbs.
“A great innovation is not enough,” he said. “It must be adopted and used widely to have major impact and that starts with general understanding. But until people move from old incandescent bulbs to the new ones, the impact is much less.
“So we need the solutions, for authorities to authorise or encourage their use through regulation, and for people to adopt them.”
And that could only work once everyone understands the benefits for humanity as a whole, but also for themselves, said Smoot.
Makati1 on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 8:48 am
Too little … too late. We are led by a group of insane people who have wealth and power to do as they like and seem to think they can have more.
rockman on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 9:04 am
“Eleven Nobel laureates will pool their clout to sound a warning…” So their “clout” will take the form of press releases warning the public. That must have Mr. Big Oil shaking in his $2,000 alligator cowboy boots. LOL.
Davy on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 9:10 am
These top down efforts by céleberties will have little effect in a world of limits of growth, diminishing returns, and peaking complexity. This self-organizing global system is beyond top down management. These groups like to do what committees typically do and that is nothing. If these folks want action create a serious global crisis then we will see something. If nothing else we can silence the Cornies. Our only options are bottom up efforts which are nowhere near enough and a crisis that with luck will bring together our fracturing global political leadership. I know wishful thinking but doomers have to have hope too.
Northwest Resident on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 9:39 am
Take all the people in the world, subtract the ignorant, subtract the stupid, subtract the mentally incapacitated, subtract the religious whacko-nuts.
From the group that’s left, subtract the greedy, the sociopaths, the power-mongers and the owner’s of vast fortunes who like things just the way they are.
From the group that’s left, remove all the people who for whatever reason don’t give a damn about climate change or planet earth — both of them.
Now, from that group, remove all the really smart, concerned, socially-attuned people who haven’t won the Nobel prize.
What do you end up with? Eleven Nobel laureates who are pooling their clout to sound a warning.
Davy on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 10:18 am
NR, your population shaving is very valid for an understanding of why so little can be disseminated from the issues we discuss her regularly. Basically the percentage of people that can digest this information is so small as to be lost in the background noise leaving a very low signal to noise ratio.
marmico on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 10:44 am
That must have Mr. Big Oil shaking in his $2,000 alligator cowboy boots
Farm raised (technology), no doubt. Too many scuff marks on natural gators. 🙂
Northwest Resident on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 11:04 am
“That must have Mr. Big Oil shaking in his $2,000 alligator cowboy boots.”
Classy sense of humor.
“Too many scuff marks on natural gators.”
WTF?
GregT on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 11:23 am
“A great innovation is not enough,” he said. “It must be adopted and used widely to have major impact and that starts with general understanding. But until people move from old incandescent bulbs to the new ones, the impact is much less.”
Sadly, it would appear that even our Nobel laureates don’t ‘get it’. CO2 is accumulative in the environment, and will remain for thousands of years. While curbing emissions may give us some more time, if we aren’t too late already, they still contribute to this accumulation. Unfortunately, we face an all or nothing dilemma. We either stop what we are doing, or we face the extinction of our species. There is no middle ground.
penury on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 11:39 am
Of course everyone in the U.S. is aware that Nobel Laureates are all honest intelligent persons whom you can trust for the best information. Check with Dr. Kissenger or Paul Krugman.
steve on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 2:32 pm
Eventually the PTB will spread a virus that will take out half of the population…including half of the people on here….next!!!
GregT on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 2:41 pm
There is no possible way that a virus could spread in this day and age. We are far too technologically advanced for that to ever happen……………..
J on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 2:55 pm
That’s probably true, and there are some sites detailing the death of top bio scientists following 9-11.
Did they know something?
There is also some evidence that HIV does not cause AIDS (if you look into it you will find really weird things), and there are rumors that EBOLA is man made. Would not surprise me.
But as long as only Afrikans that don’t have even a light bulb die it won’t affect energy consumption much.
If it kills 100M Americans that would be a different story.
Apneaman on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 3:39 pm
The masters of the universe will never stop and the majority seem happy to go along for the ride and a few shiny baubles and trinkets to impress potential mates. It is a very bad long term evolutionary strategy, because the unintended consequences of our technology are creating conditions that will soon prevent crops to grow and dead oceans. I wonder how many baubles and trinkets are in a barrel of oil?
kervennic on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 4:55 pm
Technology is the problem, not the solution.
We need technical solution,that is tricks that minimize our consumption (insulate with cheap local material, using urine in your garden and so on)
but technology will always use more energy than it will spare.
Making blue diode comes with a huge environemental price and is not the way to go for the mass (galium, huge clean rooms).
Amish people use no electricity and seems to do fine. No one needs these blue diode, our society needs them, but we do not need this society to live, we would fare much better without it, at least most of us.
Welch on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 5:56 pm
Rarely a mention of population, the elephant in the room. Stupid.
Apneaman on Tue, 7th Oct 2014 6:52 pm
I bet Mr. Big Oil will be pissing & shitting in his $2,000 alligator cowboy boots when the mob drags him up onto the scaffold. Oooo..I hope it’s live streamed.