A global team of scientists, including UC Berkeley professor of energy and resources John Harte state in a recent study that without immediate and drastic intervention, humans face a "ghastly future" — including declining health, climate devastation, tens of millions of environmental migrants and more pandemics — in the next several decades. The researchers cite more than 150 scientific studies and conclude, "That we are already on the path of a sixth major extinction is now scientifically undeniable." "Humanity is running an ecological Ponzi scheme in which society robs nature and future generations to pay for short-term economic enhancement today," said Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford University professor emeritus of population studies and a co-author of the study.