Scientists issue warning to humanity — about the growing middle class

In 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists and more than 1,700 independent scientists penned the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity."

Those scientists called for major change in order to slow the destruction of our increasing planet. And they didn't mince words.

"No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospect for humanity greatly diminished," the report stated.

"A great change in the stewardship of the Earth and the life on it is required if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated," it went on to say.

'Mutilated' is not a word to be taken lightly — especially when it's used to describe the fate of our planet.

The manifesto warned of potential dangers to ozone depletion, freshwater availability, marine life depletion, ocean dead zones, forest loss, biodiversity destruction, climate change, and continued human population growth.

Its authors called on a new generation of environmentalists to stabilize the human population and reverse the damage to the Earth's ecosystems.

But according to a new report entitled, "Warning To Humanity: A Second Notice," the response in the years since has fallen short.

Now, a new group of 15,000 scientists from 184 countries is once again pleading for the fate of the planet.

What kind of a species are we that we are just going to take out the rest of our life on the planet?"- Eileen Crist

The new research shows the world has digressed in every category with the exception of ozone depletion. And after 25 years, population growth remains one of the biggest concerns.

 "We wanted to take a look and see what has happened at the 25th year anniversary, and we find that we have not made the kind of progress that we should have been making," Eileen Crist tells Day 6 host Brent Bambury.

Crist is a co-author of the new paper and a professor at Virginia Tech's Department of Science, Technology and Society.

She says the problem isn't just the numbers, it's the increase in consumerism that comes with a growing global middle class.

"The fundamental problem is actually not population per se. Actually, the fundamental problem is over-consumption," she says.

The ongoing threat of a growing middle class

Over the past 25 years, the middle class has grown significantly in places like China, India and other areas commonly referred to as the "developing world." But as huge numbers of people rise out of poverty, they move into the zone of consumption.

It is those billions of people in their aggregate consumption that is essentially driving the ecological crisis.- Eileen Crist

As of 2016, the global middle class comprises more than three billion people at the consumer class level, meaning they can buy goods and services beyond those that satisfy their basic needs.

Crist says that number will double in the next two or three decades, putting a crippling strain on the planet in the process.

"Humans take too many resources from the planet. We destroyed too many natural habitats. We take too much from the ocean," she says.

Crist says humans also create too much waste in the form of trash and nitrogen, which is creating dead zones, as well as too many greenhouse gases, which is changing the climate.

"So really, it's an over-consumption issue," Crist tells Bambury.

"It is those billions of people in their aggregate consumption that is essentially driving the ecological crisis."

Gender equality can help save the Earth

Crist says there are two major frameworks to address the issue of population growth, and both concern human rights.

"The one that we've all known for a very long time is gender equity," Crist says. "When women are empowered, they choose to have fewer children. This is a finding that we see across the board."
  

 

​Crist points out that change can happen naturally through the processes of modernization.

It can unfurl as people are exposed to different ideas through Internet access or travel, she says. Ideas can also be changed by the process of urbanization, or even the process of entering the middle class.

But Crist argues the greater change comes from prioritizing higher education.

"We want every girl and every young woman on this planet to move beyond primary education into secondary and beyond," she explains.

"Just primary education will make a difference in how many children a woman will have but really, you start to see the big difference when you go to the secondary education and university education."

                

The realities of mass extinction

The scientists behind the new warning also say we are in the middle of a mass extinction.

A mass extinction occurs when the planet is losing 50 to 75 per cent of its species from a catastrophic event. That event could come from outside the planet or from within the planet.

In this case, it's within — and humans are behind it.

"Mass extinctions are not normal parts of the earth's life history. They're very rare events. So in the last 500 million years, five mass extinctions have occurred. This is why scientists often refer to what we're doing right now as the sixth mass extinction," Crist says.

The consequence is that it will take about five to 10 million years for the earth to recreate another chapter of vibrant biodiversity. Essentially, we are bequeathing that impoverishment of the biosphere to all human generations to come.

For perspective, Homo Sapiens have been in existence for just 300 thousand years, according to the latest science. 

Why we can't ignore another warning

Crist says she can't imagine what people in the 22nd and 23rd century will think about our choices, given the breadth of evidence that proves we knew where things were going and yet didn't stop.

"We live on this spectacularly beautiful and diverse planet with so many amazing forms of life," she says before reminding Bambury that we're intentionally destroying it.  

"What kind of a species are we that we are just going to take out the rest of our life on the planet? Why? Because we need to occupy it and take over the whole planet and turn it into a food plantation? Because we need to colonize the planet and call it 'the planet of the humans,' and everything else is expendable or enslavable?"

"We are impoverishing it [Earth] in the name of a growth that is not even taking humans in a good direction."

"So these are ethical questions. They're not questions of survival."
        

To hear the full interview with Eileen Crist, download our podcast or click the 'Listen' button at the top of this page.