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In 1992, the original “World Scientists' Warning to Humanity” was published by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). A majority of the living Nobel Prize laureates in the sciences at the time signed the document, and about 1,700 of the worlds’ leading scientists appended their signatures to the document.

In 2017, on the 25th anniversary of the original document, a “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice” was created by Oregon State University ecologist William J. Ripple and seven other authors. This document evaluated and discussed the human response to the original document by exploring time-series data of the following ten trends in the 25 years since the original document:


 * a. Ozone depletors
 * b. Freshwater resources per capita
 * c. Reconstructed marine catch
 * d. Dead zones
 * e. Total forest
 * f. Vertebrate species abundance
 * g. CO2 emissions
 * h. Temperature change
 * I. Population:
 * • Humans
 * • Ruminant livestock

Findings stated in the document, “Since 1992, with the exception of stabilizing the stratosphere ozone layer, humanity has failed to make sufficient progress in generally solving these foreseen environmental challenges, and alarmingly, most of them are getting far worse.” A total of 15,364 scientists from 184 countries signed the document prior to the publication deadline on Oct. 23, 2017. As of April 8, 2018, an additional 5,005 additional scientists have endorsed the document to bring the total to over 20,000 signatures. Additional endorsement by scientists only is allowed at the Oregon State University "Alliance of World Scientists" website.

This document was subsequently published in the December 2017 Academic Journal BioScience and published on major news channels including CNN, Washington Post , and the Boston Globe.