Plenary speakers

Piotr Rzymski - Environmental and medical biologist, co-author of about 300 scientific publications, academic lecturer, popularizer of science. Editor of several peer-review journals, editor-in-chief of Limnological Review, secretary of the Polish Limnological Society. Scientific Director of the Universal Scientific Education and Research Network, an expert of EU Research Executive Agency, external expert of the World Health Organization. Expert of research funding agencies in Chile, France, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Sweden and Hungary. Awarded with scholarships by the Foundation for Polish Science and the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In 2021, awarded the title of Leader of the Year in Healthcare in Poland. In 2022, recognized as 100 most influential people in Polish Medicine. Awarded with Grand Prize in 'Popularizer of Science' contest. Since 2020, classified within World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University and Elsevier.

MORE THAN 100 AQUATIC-SCIENCE SOCIETIES SOUND CLIMATE ALARM, AND YOU SHOULD TOO

Piotr RZYMSKI
Department of Environmental Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland

Abstract
In 2020, due to the urgency of the situation, 111 aquatic-science societies, collectively representing over 80,000 researchers from 7 continents, issued a statement on how human-driven climate change is affecting aquatic resources, which are now under their greatest threat in human history, but which are essential for future of humankind. The statement (available under the link: go.nature.com/2lq9zma) also provided the needed responses, including drastically curbing the release of greenhouse emissions, a rapid transition towards energy sources and other products and services that do not release greenhouse gases, easing other environmental stressors that act synergistically with climate change. The statement calls on leaders and the public to act now to protect and sustain global aquatic ecosystems and their services, on which we all depend. Climate change, magnified by several positive feedback loop mechanisms, can have unprecedented economic, political, health and social impacts. It requires mitigation and adaptation measures and support for low-and-middle-income countries to tackle what is quickly becoming a moral crisis; that is, those who are least responsible will suffer the highest cost. The future generations will know if we succeeded or failed.
Keywords: climate change; greenhouse emissions; biodiversity loss; aquatic ecosystem