Our History
Scientists’ Warning Foundation formally incorporated inspired by the challenge to unite behind the science at this crucial moment in history and in order to support the critical mission of scientists everywhere in their continued efforts to warn humanity of the dangers of the climatological emergency now underway and impacting every region of the globe. According to the scientists, if we act now, we might still mitigate the worst outcomes.
The World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity was a document written in 1992 by Henry W. Kendall and signed by about 1,700 leading scientists. In late 1992, the late Henry W. Kendall, a former chair of the board of directors of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), wrote the first warning World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, which begins: “Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.” The World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency which was published in BioScience Magazine.
A majority of the Nobel Prize laureates in the sciences signed the document; about 1,700 of the world’s leading scientists appended their signature. 25 years later, in November 2017, 15,364 scientists signed World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice.
In 2019, a World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency was published. In February of 2021, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published the ‘Making Peace with Nature‘ report.
Later in 2021, the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis was published.” The warnings provide the latest analysis and research pertaining to the climatological emergency and the sixth mass extinction event.
The vital importance and role of the Scientists’ Warning Foundation comes from scientists’ unique responsibility as stewards of human knowledge and champions of evidence-based decision-making. The main goal of the Scientists’ Warning is to be a collective international voice of many scientists regarding global climate and environmental trends and how to turn accumulated knowledge into action.
In Cooperation with the Alliance of World Scientists
The Alliance of World Scientists (AWS) is a new international assembly of scientists, which is independent of both governmental and non-governmental organizations and corporations. It asserts that in order to prevent widespread misery caused by catastrophic damage to the biosphere, humanity must practice more environmentally sustainable alternative to business-as-usual.
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Our Thanks to Stuart H. Scott
Stuart H. Scott was an American environmentalist and educator known for his creativity in communicating the urgency and severity of the impact of the current ‘growth’ economic system on climate, habitability of Earth, and society. Scott was the ultimate ‘systems thinker’, with training in a variety of scientific fields, work experience in finance, education and information systems, as well as extensive investigative immersion in Nature, cognitive psychology and long-time presentation skills.
In 2018, Scott presented with Greta Thunberg and her father Svante Thunberg, to COP-24 in Poland, from which Greta’s unwavering clear message to world leaders was amplified and her position cemented as the preeminent spokesperson for youth and future generations.
Scientists’ Warning Foundation is grateful for the colossal effort that Stuart Scott invested in founding ScientistsWarning.org.