Back in 2019, more than 11,000 scientists declared a global climate emergency. They established a comprehensive set of vital signs that impact or reflect the planet’s health, such as forest loss, fossil fuel subsidies, glacier thickness, ocean acidity and surface temperature.
In a new paper published on July 27, we show how these vital signs have changed since the original publication, including through the Covid-19 pandemic. In general, while we have seen lots of positive talk and commitments from some governments, our vital signs are mostly not trending in the right direction.
So, let us look at how things have progressed since 2019, from the growing number of livestock to the meagre influence of the pandemic.
Some good news
No, thankfully. Fossil fuel divestment and fossil fuel subsidies have improved in record-setting ways, potentially signalling an economic shift to a renewable energy future.
