Lifeboat Foundation

To mark the letter’s 25th anniversary, researchers have issued a bracing follow-up. In a communique published Monday in the journal BioScience, more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries assess the world’s latest responses to various environmental threats. Once again, they find us sorely wanting.

In 1992, scientists warned humanity about a host of impending ecological disasters. A quarter-century later, most of them have gotten worse.