The American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS) has issued a bold call for action related to climate change. With the
publication of a report on the subject entitled “What We Know,” the
organization delivers an assessment of current climate science and impacts that
emphasizes the need to understand and recognize possible high-risk scenarios.
But the organization ups the ante. CEO Alan Leshner, in a
letter to members 14 May, says that it’s not enough to simply issue another
report. Leshner’s letter says it’s time to “change the conversation from
whether the earth is warming to just how we are going to work together to alter
the course our planet is on.” He calls on scientists to work together to alert
the United States and the world to “severe outcomes that could occur through
inaction or continued resistance to change.”
The report cites polls in which a large minority of
Americans still think there is significant disagreement among scientists about
whether global warming is real. While 97% of scientists* agree about it, only
42% of Americans are aware of the consensus. The AAAS “What We Know” initiative
aims to change the conversation based on three R’s: Reality, Risk, and Response.
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| * A humorous approach: The comedy show Last Week Tonight recently demonstrated what 97% versus 3% looks like, in its segment “Climate Change Debate” [4:26] |
By coincidence, today (20 May) is World Metrology Day. But not
surprisingly, this year’s theme is “Measurements and the global energy
challenge.” Almost every aspect of the
fight to document and respond to climate change depends on measurement.
To dig deeper into some of that, check out a new special
section in the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing (JARS)The section
details work of scientists and engineers developing new technologies and methods
to observe biophysical changes from space, helping to monitor and address
phenomena from shrinking glaciers to water runoff from urban development. The papers in the special section are among outcomes of “Earth observation for sensitive
variables of global change: mechanisms and methodologies,” a years-long project of the National Basic Research
Program of China.
“Global change now poses a severe threat to
the survival and development of humankind,” said guest
editor Huadong Guo, director of the Institute of Remote Sensing and
Digital Earth in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Comprehensive observation by
multiple remote sensing systems could provide an effective means for accurately
observing global change.”
The United Nations has had a lot to say about
climate change lately as well. As part of a
global effort to mobilize action and ambition on climate change, United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is inviting heads of state and government along
with business, finance, civil society and local leaders to a climate summit in
September in New York City.
And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), which demonstrated last month that global emissions of
greenhouse gases have risen to unprecedented levels despite a growing number of
policies to reduce climate change, is
seeking comment from experts for its Synthesis Report to be finalized in
October.
These are bold calls to action, as they are meant to be -- and 97% of scientists can tell you why.
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