Condition of the Planet
WATER
A third of the world's population today live in water-stressed countries. By 2025, two-thirds of the world's people are likely to be living in areas of acute water stress. One person in five across the world has no access to safe drinking water, and one in two lacks safe sanitation.
ENERGY
Oil production could peak and supplies start to decline by 2010. Oil industry experts estimate that current reserves will only last for about 40 years.
CLIMATE CHANGE
The world's greatest environmental challenge, according to many, with more heat waves, droughts, floods and violent storms predicted. The IPCC predicts that by 2100 global sea levels will probably have risen by up to 88cm and average temperatures will be up to 5.5C higher than now.
BIODIVERSITY
Many scientists think the Earth is now entering its sixth great extinction phase. 31% of land-based and 25% of marine species have disappeared since 1970. Many species keep us alive, purifying water, fixing nitrogen, recycling nutrients and waste, and pollinating crops.
POLLUTION
Hazardous chemicals are now found in the bodies of all new-born babies, and a quarter of people worldwide are exposed to unhealthy concentrations of air pollutants. WHO says 3m people a year are killed by outdoor air pollution.
Pollution these days affects our air our water supply and our soil, unfortunately we no longer have the option of growing food, or finding enough water in a pristinely natural and clean environment. The number of birth defects in Chinese infants has risen nearly 40 per cent since 2001 to nearly 6 per cent of total births every year. Government officials have linked the rise to China's worsening environmental degradation.
Source: Planet Under Pressure, The Green Room, BBC News