Thanks for the good news, András. I too signed that petition. From what I have seen, Avaaz is doing some important work, effectively channeling worldwide currents of activism. I don't know much about this organization, but what I have seen looks positive. A few decades ago, when I was active with Amnesty International and International PEN, we also had some success in solving problems by collectively standing up to misguided government policies. Some cynical older colleagues laughed at our efforts and said we were naive, that 'changing the world' wasn´t possible. But experience has shown that it is possible to make a change. Every action you take, even just smiling at someone on the street, has a ripple effect and changes the world, perhaps in ways that have a stronger impact than we suspect.

Thanks for the good news, András. I too signed that petition. From what I have seen, Avaaz is doing some important work, effectively channeling worldwide currents of activism. I don't know much about this organization, but what I have seen looks positive. A few decades ago, when I was active with Amnesty International and International PEN, we also had some success in solving problems by collectively standing up to misguided government policies. Some cynical older colleagues laughed at our efforts and said we were naive, that 'changing the world' wasn´t possible. But experience has shown that it is possible to make a change. Every action you take, even just smiling at someone on the street, has a ripple effect and changes the world, perhaps in ways that have a stronger impact than we suspect.

Dear András ,

I do want to save the earth, the beauty of life on this planet and also help saving the beauty of all forms of human cultures.  For that we need not to look at the amazon, what is far from most of us but focus on the common ennemy, the one destroying the amazon, and humanity, and this ennemy is our own acceptance that we have no control on our destiny because we let ourself control by money and all the ideologies that say that we have no other choice that to accept all the destruction.   Once we will not accept these ideologies, the most central one at the core of the modern utopia: the gospel of greeds, the gospel of markets, then we may imagine ways to save life, all forms of life.  We have to stop being helpless plants. 

I just read a few web pages about Avaaz:

https://secure.avaaz.org/page/en/

https://www.1843magazine.com/content/features/robert-butler/man-behind-avaaz?page=full

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avaaz.

Thanks again, András, for bringing this up and for motivating me to learn a bit more about an activist movement that is changing the world in a positive way.

The planet earth to me is the greatest caretaker of all humans and we need to respect her and all its resources that have faithfully offered our life sustenance. We must live conservatory and sustainable lifestyles while engaging in environmentally friendly activities. I am not just every ready, every minute, to save and defend the mother earth, but I am jealous for her well-being, willing to surmount all her enemies and put them in the sea, ready to replenish all her strength so that she will be free from all forms of unheard groanings that are constantly piercing my heart- I am willing to DIE to save the mother earth. Best regards

Dickson Adom

Interesting question. I totally agree with all RG colleagues.

Thanks for bringing this up. I enjoyed the discussion 

Dear Louis,

Dear All,

Thanks for your contributions. I am afraid that defending our foremother, the Earth should be a way of life. Taking part in campaigns, voting against corrupt/ignorant politicians or businessmen are not enough. Our everyday life should follow rules of sustainability in all respects. So it must be a practice. Sometimes it is not easy and often can cause frustration with our fellow-creatures who see the world as goods of a big free market. I as a teacher of ecology and biological control have tried to do my task educating students but the results are sometimes disappointing. However, one cannot give up.

Dear All,

What each of us should watch: Before the flood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEqBduQIx-Q

Dear All,

Please, read this contribution and distribute it among all who can be contacted:

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/doi/10.1093/biosci/bix125/4605229

Ripple, W. J. et al. World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice

Dear András

Warning to Humanity:

Sunc warnings is important but we had many in the past and we are on a collision course with many catastrophs but something more than such warning is necessary. Such warnings do not even enter the electoral debates in the few places where there are such debate. Unless it become a political agenda, nothing will change. The fact that the Italian soccer team did not make it for the mondial final is much more likely to be into the electoral debate in Italy than the ecological catastrophy ahead.

The idea that we have to stop population growth is not even discussed.

We obviously do not have yet reach a point of development of humanity where such evidences can influence our behavior. Our collective intelligence is not sensitive enough. We will most probably survive all the catastrophies ahead but it is like saying that the car going full speed will eventually stop when it hit the concrete wall ahead. It will not be a smooth adaptation and our number will drastically goes down but we will survive.

Canada 🇨🇦And there elected officials gad similar aditut like in Brazil 🇧🇷

Dear András,

thank you for this question, I already signed the petition like a lot of others from Avaaz. We have to fight against a lot of corrupt governments and companies all around the world.

Rudolf

@Artur:

not the rainforest, but we in Europe destroyed (and actually destroy!) our forests, too!

We cannot point to South America with raised finger and at the same time clear our last primeval forests in Europe. What is e.g. with Bialowieza in Poland or ski lifts in German and Czech nature reserves?

Rudolf,

Yes everybody should just have the chance to cut all their forests, to have the opportunity to polute all their lakes. In Canada we still have a lot of work to do in this direction and are working hard at it.

To: András Bozsik.

This is not task for scientist, in my opinion. Scientist increases the knowledge, including facts about possibility of the climate change. Unfortunately, scientist's conclusions and forecasts strongly depend on the patrons of such studies. I will not give examples of how scientists in their work are interested in supporting the irresponsible ideas of politicians and businesspersons - everyone knows this enough.

Nature will be destroyed if this will more profitable than to preserve it. In addition, in the present paradigm of world existence, significant changes are impossible. Any case, not scientists will change all these.

Dear Louis Brassard,

I think you got me wrong, this is of course not my opinion. I just wanted to say:

While we are (and rightly!) pillorying others,

we should not overlook our own problems.

I do not approve of the deforestation of the Brazilian

rainforest or the events in Bialowieza.

Our German forest laws are bad for the preservation

of our nature, too. They are clearly privileging the destruction

of our last natural forests. I am afraid, it is similar in Canada.

Best,

Rudolf

Dear Vadim,

I do not agree with your opinion. I thought that moral obligation of all people is to save the earth and to maintain its biosphere and function. As scientists must have some abilities to think and so to understand natural, economic even demographic processes, their responsibility and active opportunity should be much higher then those of ordinary people. Scientists should have even some elementary knowledge on philosophy and ethics what they should execute in everyday life.

Dear Rudolph,

THere are systemic economic pressure to destroy our environment. And it is only throw the political that we can change the rules of the economy and so make it uneconomic to destroy the natural life. For example, most mining companies are legally based in Canada because Canada is a tax heaven for mining companies. Not only do these mining companies operating in the poorest countries do not respect the environment but a lot of them actually kill environment activists in these countries; I am a member of Amisty International and this is well documented. So it is my responsibility as a canadian to pressure my own elected representative to have him pressure our government to stop this regime of immunity in Canada for the big mining companies. When we buy products, we should have systems of tracability of all products and to have taxes in proportion to the level of environment destruction of a given product. Currently, the more irresponsible is a production and the cheaper the product get and these type of irresponsible productors get to dominate. If all country would have irresponsibility taxes on all products than more responsible industrial practices would tend to dominate. All that can be done throw politic. The economic actors will always try to maximize profits; it is the job of politics to make sure that the proper regulations are in place so that destructing the environment will not be profitalbe. And since all economies are related, a leadership in this direction in the US and in the EU would be enough to set a global trend. China and all other countries would not have any choice if they want their products to be bought in our markets.

Regards

P.S.

The american and canadian prairies were the natural habitat of hundred of million of wild buffalo and the culture and the livehood of the american prairy native was based on this animals. The introduction of the railway and a policy of genocide of the buffalo and natives took place in the 2th half of the 19th century in order to have eastern european settlers on the land.

Wild bison roam Banff National Park for 1st time in more than century

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/bison-buffalo-banff-national-park-1.3969106

Dear Louis,

l can really agree with your statement. I think, that the price of a product or a service should include the environmental impact of the whole manufacturing process from the raw materials right to the removal or better recycling. This would shift the evaluations and lead to a new perspective of commercial actions. Most of us do not see, that pollution of the environment really harms ourselves, they have the imagination, that our world is interminable. So do most of the politicians. But it is their turn (and our turn as the voters) , to adjust the balance. When there is guaranteed this economic equilibrium, we can in peace of conscience choose the cheapest way.

Dear Artur,

OK, I am happy to see, that we are unanimous and your request was rather provocative.

We have to do our homework in Europe without closing our eyes viewing Southamerica or South East Asia. I would prefer heimische Laubhölzer und HEIMISCHE Nadelhölzer, sowas wie Fagus sylvatica und Abies ALBA, because they are the home of our heimischen Tier-und Pflanzenwelt ...

Dear Artur,

Dear All,

My congratulations that you planted native European trees. I did the same when I planted an about 60 m long agricultural hedge along the fence composed of European native trees and shrubs. There are even shorter separating hedge parts inside the garden making a better view of it that is so the garden seems to be larger. Establishing of hedges and tree lines is a traditional custom and practice in the UK, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. This is a tiny step for contributing to the vegetable diversity and so to sustainable conditions.

Dear András and Artur,

I also did this tiny step to have a hedge along the border of my property. But already the neighbor disapproves of this because of the shade, the leaves in autumn and the flowers in spring. That's why we have almost warlike conditions, he has already felled two trees on my property. Here many people have terribly well-kept gardens, no trace of nature. So much for saving our planet on a small scale.

This is a very interesting discussion. All should be aware of keeping our earth clean and safe. As mother earth gives us so many natural things, it is our duty to shoe our gratitude to natural.

After detailed reading of World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice and its resources, it is fine to inform the colleague about

The Alliance of World Scientists (AWS)

The AWS is a new international assembly of scientists, which is independent of both governmental and non-governmental organizations and corporations. We submit, 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. Our vital importance and role comes from scientists' unique responsibility as stewards of human knowledge and champions of evidence-based decision-making. The main goal of the AWS is to be a collective international voice of many scientists regarding global climate and environmental trends and how to turn accumulated knowledge into action. Other organizations do laudable work toward this goal, but to our knowledge, AWS is the only independent, grass-roots organization comprised of scientists from around the world committed to the well-being of humanity and the planet.

http://scientists.forestry.oregonstate.edu/

Dear Ljubomir,

The real trouble is that regarding the RG peers’ reactions, they are not actually interested on the increasing functional wounds of the Earth in spite of the second warning: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Have_you_read_this_call_or_pray_Ripple_W_J_et_al_World_Scientists_Warning_to_Humanity_A_Second_Notice

I remember there was a relatively intensive discussion at RG some years ago whether faeces can be eaten or not?

Planet earth is our survival for the entire human race & as such we have to honor ,respect , guard , & to take care in every respect all the developement we have offered to the earth & other planetary existence of MOON,& MARS .We are aware that our earth is our mother planet cover under the umbrella of other planets such as SUN , MOON, MARS, MERCURY , JUPITER ,VENUS,& SATURN .

We know that the planet influences are in the range of human behavior ,character, & their action of the life whether positive or negative depending on his influences of destiny .

Whether the human race believes or not but if the influence of the planet play certainly a part in their action with this it remain also have an influence on our mother earth as such negative action of human being in any part of the world may create a disturbance on our earth . With this our earth has also to suffer the natural calamities of cyclone ,earth quakes,river, & other part of nature environment .

It becomes the moral code .& ethics of human being & all the scientist with their development must try to make a comfortable environment to our earth which is nothing but it is my mother .

This is my personal opinion

Dear Artur and Rudolf,

Hedges that is agricultural hedges not only increase biodiversity (specimens and species of natural enemies as well as indifferent animals) but have many beneficial effects on production and economy: as Artur showed hedges produce timber for heating and instruments, fruits and mushrooms for our table, medicinal plants to heal us and prepare infusions, they are a fine honey bee pasture, increase the quantity of precipitation and dew, decrease the wind’s force and so the photosynthesis increases. In summary, hedges can provide resources for our everyday life and increase the yield of the field where it is situated. Of course, hedges are the homes of many endangered plants and animals like bird species that becoming scarce in many European countries. These beings may be important because of our cultural and aesthetic demands. It is a pleasure to see birds and to hear their songs. Not to speak about that birds are ecological indicators. Their structure (e.g. diversity) shows possible negative events and trouble in biosphere.

The Scientists’ Warning to Humanity has now reached millions of people. It has been featured in over 120 news outlets and tweeted by over 6500 people reaching up to 12 million people. It is trending to be one of the most discussed papers of 2017 based on an Altmetric Score of >6000 ...

https://oxfordjournals.altmetric.com/details/28854048