When we talk about the escalating climate crisis, we think about humans, science and nature. 2022 ended with a COP15 on UN Biodiversity Conference attended by nearly 200 countries, signing the Kunming-Montreal agreement to live in harmony with nature by 2050.

In 2023, 12 people propose 12 quotations in this article. Let’s see what they are:

Science and nature

Giving a wake-up call to humanity by science about nature is not new. And it grows every year, so in 2023, let’s listen to it.
“We’ve been given a warning by science and a wake-up call by nature; it is up to us now to heed them.” 
Bill McKibben, American Author, Educator and the Environmentalist 

Climate change is global

There is no impression that climate change is local. It is global and requires a planetary solution but it is acted upon locally.
“We really need to kick the carbon habit and stop making our energy from burning things. Climate change is also really important. You can wreck one rainforest then move, drain one area of resources and move onto another, but climate change is global.”
Sir David Attenborough, Broadcaster, Biologist, Natural Historian and Author

No Planet B

We are messing about planet Earth as if we have another planet to go to, but there is no planet B.
“By polluting the oceans, not mitigating CO2 emissions and destroying our biodiversity, we are killing our planet. Let us face it, there is no planet B.”
Emmanuel Macron, President of France

Humans and nature

Last year, COP27 was held. This year, COP28. The next year, COP29. In these global conferences with the UN sign, the humans argue but nature acts. When will this end?
“Men argue. Nature acts.” 
Voltaire, a French Writer, Historian, and Philosopher (in the 1700s).

Money cannot save us

Money is the human-produced resource that saves us in many areas but not with biodiversity. If we keep on polluting the air, water and soil, it is our termination. Money is useless.
“If we pollute the air, water and soil that keep us alive and well, and destroy the biodiversity that allows natural systems to function, no amount of money will save us.” 
Professor David Suzuki, Canadian academic, Science broadcaster, and Environmental activist

Indigenous communities and nature

In his acceptance speech for Best Actor at the 2016 Golden Globes, Leonardo DiCaprio has this to say about the indigenous communities around the world, who live with nature.
“I want to share this award with all the first nation's people represented in this film and all the indigenous communities around the world. It is time that we recognize your history and that we protect your indigenous lands from corporate interests and people that are out there to exploit them. It is time we heard your voice and protected this planet for future generations.”
Leonardo DiCaprio

Can sort out climate change

Feeling the effect of climate change and doing something about it is not a guarantee that we must foresee.

But if we have the brains, we would surely do something about it. 
“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.”
Barack Obama, Former US President

Solve a planetary crisis

A planetary solution to a planetary crisis is what we must find together as a human race on planet A in no time.
We are running out of time, and we must have a planetary solution to a planetary crisis. 
Al Gore, Former US Vice President

Wake up and change

Facts and solutions about climate change are available but what we need is to wake up and change, especially some politicians and business leaders.
“The climate crisis has already been solved. We already have the facts and solutions. All we have to do is wake up and change.” 
Greta Thunberg

Green or not at all

Green jobs, green growth and a green future is the idea that we have to envision for the future. If the future is not green, what will happen?
The future will be green or not at all.  
Jonathon Porritt, Sustainability Campaigner and Writer

Act now on climate change

Strong action now will sort out climate change. But when will NOW happen?
“There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we take strong action now.”
Professor Nicholas Stern, Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science

Radical action on climate change

NOW was used in the 1992 Earth Summit, the 2015 Paris Agreement and 2022 COP27. It’s not NOW yet, so it is radical action that we have to resort to.
“The Earth is in a death spiral. It will take radical action to save us.” 
George Monbiot

Since the 1992 Earth Summit, it is 30 years of climate change. Science tells us that humans are in a battle with nature and it is a losing battle. Humans would have to live with nature. This is the only way. 

Let’s hope that 2023 will bring us the ‘only way’ as the solution to the intensifying climate crisis. Informed by science, we humans must live with nature, not against it.
 

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