What Is…
- In South America, 1.3% of the remaining forest is lost every year.
- The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
- Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.
- Deaths from global warming will double in 25 years to 300,000 people a year.
- Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.
- Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense.
- Droughts and wildfires will occur more often.
- The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.
- The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
- 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water supply and 2.4 lack access to improved sanitation.
- 94% of the world’s forests are unprotected
- It is estimated that 450 of the existing types of birds will be extinct by 2015.
- 12% of the Earth’s plant species could be lost in the next 20 years.
- Every year there are major declines in seabird and amphibian populations globally.
- Africa has had 65% of its wildlife habitats converted to other uses.
- Desertification affects more than 75% of drier ecosystems worldwide.
- In New Zealand 90% of wetland habitats have been lost.
- Heavy demands on the world’s surface waters have resulted in serious shortages in some 80 countries, containing 40% of the world’s population.
- The total marine catch is now at or above the estimated maximum sustainable yield.
- Since 1945, 11% of the earth’s vegetated surface has been degraded — an area larger than India and China combined — and per capita food production in many parts of the world is decreasing.
- By 2100, the extinction of species may reach one third of all species now living.
References and for more information:
Green Networld