"Humanity takes a colossal risk with our common future," said 126 Nobel laureates in a call ahead of the G7 summit this weekend in Britain.

Winners such as the Dalai Lama, Steven Chu, Shirin Ebadi, Jennifer Doudna and Alice Munro have signed on.

The message is that time is running out to avoid irreversible changes for our societies and the Earth's biosphere, and quick and powerful political decisions are now needed.

The Nobel laureates' demands on the G7 leaders can be summarized in the following points:

  • Halve carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and stop the loss of biodiversity.

  • To avoid new pandemics, politicians must invest in "one health", ie good health for all people also in poor countries and for both wild and domestic animals.

  • Economic inequality within countries and between poor and rich nations needs to be reduced.

  • Technological development should be directed more towards global sustainability in the future.

    Researchers, the state and companies need to collaborate on this.

  • Society must act as a matter of urgency to counteract the industrialization of misinformation online and in the media.

  • Both children and adults should be educated in what is proven, on research methodology and scientific consensus in order to be able to drive political and economic change based on facts.

The demands were formulated at the Nobel meeting Our Planet, Our Future at the end of April 2021. See medicine prize winner Richard Roberts formulate his version of what the G7 leaders must decide on this weekend in the video above.