A research paper, World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice, published in the journal Bioscience about the fate of humanity, has received more than 20,000 signatures and endorsements from scientists in 184 countries.

Meanwhile, if humans don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically and maintain carbon sinks like forests within 10 years, the impact on our climate will be catastrophic, according to the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Researchers there have developed a model that they believe could do the trick; it calls for fossil fuel consumption to be reduced to less than 25 percent of the global energy supply by 2100, a drastic cut from the 95 percent being used now. Deforestation also must be cut significantly to lead to a 42 percent decrease in cumulative emissions.

The target is in line with the Paris agreement on climate change, which 194 countries have signed, but not the United States.

This article appears in the August 2018 issue of Natural Awakenings.