Our Earth is sick, and it鈥檚 killing millions of us: study
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The Earth is sick with multiple and worsening environmental ills killing millions of people yearly, a new UN report says.
Climate change, a major global extinction of animals and plants, a human population soaring toward 10 billion, degraded land, polluted air, and plastics, pesticides and hormone-changing chemicals in the water are making the planet an increasing unhealthy place for people, says the scientific report issued once every few years.
But it may not be too late.
鈥淭here is every reason to be hopeful,鈥 said report co-editors Joyeeta Gupta and Paul Ekins. 鈥淭here is still time but the window is closing fast.鈥
The sixth Global Environment Outlook, released yesterday at a UN conference in Nairobi, painted a dire picture of a planet where environmental problems interact with each other to make things even more dangerous for people. It uses the word 鈥渞isk鈥 561 times in a 740-page report.
The report concludes 鈥渦nsustainable human activities globally have degraded the Earth鈥檚 ecosystems, endangering the ecological foundations of society.鈥
But it also says changes in the way the world eats, buys things, gets its energy and handles its waste could help fix the problems.
Killer air
The report is 鈥渁 dramatic warning and a high-level road map for what must be done to prevent widespread disruption and even irreversible destruction of planetary life-support systems,鈥 said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who wasn鈥檛 part of the report.
Several other scientists also praised the report, which draws on existing science, data and maps.
鈥淭his report clearly shows the connections between the environment and human health and well-being,鈥 said Stuart Pimm, a Duke University ecologist.
Gupta and Ekins, environmental scientists in Amsterdam and London, said air pollution annually kills 7 million people worldwide and costs society about US$5 trillion. Water pollution, with associated diseases, kills another 1.4 million.
The scientists said the most important and pressing problems facing humankind are global warming and loss of biodiversity because they are permanent and affect so many people in so many different ways.
鈥淭ime is running out to prevent the irreversible and dangerous impacts of climate change,鈥 the report says, noting unless something changes, global temperatures will exceed the 鈥渄angerous鈥 threshold of warming 鈥 1 degree Celsius above current temperatures.
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