Nobel laureates including Kailash Satyarthi call for action on climate change

LONDON: Comparing the threat of climate change to that of a nuclear war, a group of 30 Nobel laureates including India's Kailash Satyarthi have called upon the nations of the world to take decisive action to limit future global emissions.
The Nobel laureates from around the world have signed a new climate change pledge to tackle the threat to humanity.
"So far we have avoided nuclear war though the threat remains. We believe that our world today faces another threat of comparable magnitude," they said.

The declaration marked the final day of the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, yesterday at Mainau Island on Lake Constance, Switzerland.

Among the speakers was Indian Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi.

"The nations of the world must take the opportunity at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015 to take decisive action to limit future global emissions,"said the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change.

It is expected that a new international agreement on climate protection will be approved at the 21st UN Climate Conference to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

Following on from the latest climate policy resolutions adopted by the G7 states and the environment -- and climate -- oriented encyclical "Laudato si'" issued by Pope Francis, the Nobel laureates' declaration is another urgent warning of the consequences of climate change.

"If left unchecked, our ever-increasing demand for food, water, and energy will eventually overwhelm the Earth's ability to satisfy humanity's needs, and will lead to wholesale human tragedy," the declaration said.

The Mainau Declaration is the result of an initiative on the part of Nobel Science Laureates who took part in the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.

The signatories to the declaration have all been awarded Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine, in physics or in chemistry.

Some of the laureates who have not attended the final day of the meeting had already put their names to the declaration earlier at Lindau.