Nobel Prize-winning scholars: The Earth is being overexploited.

Eleven Nobel laureates will participate in a four-day conference in Hong Kong (China) starting October 8th, coinciding with the week-long announcement of the 2014 Nobel Prizes in Stockholm (Sweden) and Oslo (Norway), to raise awareness about the Earth's current state of overexploitation by humanity and to call for a revolution in human behavior.

Illustrative image. (Source: www.frontpagemag.com)

In a letter sent to the French news agency AFP, Peter Doherty, co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Medicine, emphasized that the current situation is "catastrophic."

Global warming, deforestation, soil erosion and water quality degradation, ocean acidification, chemical pollution, and environmental-related diseases are all becoming increasingly serious, and the list of "wounds on the planet" is constantly growing.

According to him, it's time for citizens, businesses, and politicians to consider the impact on our planet in every decision they make.

Scholar Brian Schimidt, co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, argues that resource depletion is imminent. The ever-increasing consumption of raw materials over the last 35 years has resulted in the Earth being exploited more than it was in the previous 1,000 years.

Scientists unanimously agree on the urgent need for solutions to "save" the Earth.

Clean and alternative energy is mentioned as a priority solution.

However, scholars also point out that inventions and new technologies are not enough; what is crucial is to bring these scientific inventions into life, to change people's mindset, and to help them realize that changing their behavior towards the Earth is for the long-term benefit of humanity.

According to VNA