Aussies join global scientists in declaring climate emergency
Xinhua (Sydney): Researchers from Australia’s globally renowned University of Sydney (UoS) have helped lead roughly 11,000 scientists from over 150 countries in joining together to declare a climate emergency.
A paper published on Wednesday, which was co-authored by Dr. Thomas Newsome from UoS, warns of “untold human suffering” if current environmental trends caused by human activity continue.
Newsome told Xinhua that this intention of the study was to track what progress has been made over the past 40 years in terms of climate change, across as many measures and disciplines as possible. “Because climate change is linked with so many parts of human lives and so many different parts of science, we wanted to provide an opportunity for scientists across all disciplines to sign and support our paper itself and the messages within it,” Newsome said. “Scientists have a moral obligation to warn humanity of any great threat.”
Newsome co-authored the study along with colleagues from the Oregon State University, University of Cape Town and Tufts University, with over 11,000 scientists from around the world adding their signatures.
By looking at a broad range of indicators, they identified six areas where humanity should take immediate action in order to slow down the effects of a warming planet - they are, energy, short-lived pollutants, nature, food, economy and population.
Strategies include replacing fossil fuels with clean renewables, restoring and protecting ecosystems such as forests, grasslands and mangroves which reduce carbon in the atmosphere, eating more plants and less animal products, shifting focus away from economic growth - and stabilizing the global population which they say is growing at 200,000 people every day.
China launches new BeiDou satellite
XICHANG (GN): China sent a new satellite of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) into space from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province at 1:43 a.m. Tuesday.
Launched on a Long March-3B carrier rocket, it is the 49th satellite of the BDS satellite family and the 24th satellite of the BDS-3 system. It also marked that a total of three BDS-3 satellites have been sent into the inclined geosynchronous Earth orbit. The launch was the 317th mission for the Long March series of carrier rockets. The new satellites and the carrier rocket were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
China will launch another six BDS-3 satellites to complete the BDS global network.■