Nuclear warfare is a constant threat to life on earth but climate change is no less serious, says a summit of the world’s Nobel Laureates who, along with Prince Charles of the United Kingdom, recently issued a memorandum declaring temperature control as the best chance of stopping climate change’s catastrophe on planet earth. Failing to do so can result in a threat to life on earth as severe as that posed by nuclear warfare.

One of the main reasons furthering human inaction in efforts toward environmental amelioration seems to be the general feeling that the environmental threat is not immediate. And yet the statistics on environment/climate related damage are hair-raising. Consider, for example, a recent report by the think tank of former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, which reveals that global warming is causing about 300, 000 human deaths each year. If environmental pollution and greenhouse effect retain the same conditions, by 2030, adverse climate will cause about 500, 000 deaths per year.

The report also warns that if greenhouse emissions are not cut significantly in the next 25 years, about 400 million humans around the world will suffer in various forms like poverty, health problems, and displacement. Water shortage and problems of food production will intensify and ecosystems will suffer seriously. The report points to the fact that weak leadership and general ignorance of environmental issues are responsible for the coming climatic disaster.