Within the lifetime of anyone born at the start of the Baby Boom, the human population has tripled. In the 1960s, humans took about three-quarters of what the planet could regenerate annually. By 2016 this rose to 170 percent, meaning that the planet cannot keep up with human demand, and we are running the world down.
Humans have altered about 70 percent of Earth’s land surface and ocean. Wetlands have lost 85 percent of their natural area; the ocean’s large predatory fish are two-thirds gone; coral reefs have lost half their living mass. Agriculture has halved the weight of living vegetation on land, driving a diversity loss of 20 percent; 40 percent of extant plants are currently endangered. The world’s wild populations of birds, mammals, fishes, reptiles, and amphibians have declined by an average of nearly 70 percent in just the last 50 years, a breathtaking plummet. More than 700 species have gone extinct over the last 500 years, an extinction rate 15 times the natural rate. These disruptions and declines have caused the deterioration of soil, air, and water quality; pollination; carbon sequestration; and human health. Other things have increased: floods, fires, the number of malnourished people, plastic pollution, general, toxification and infectious epidemics.
Fossil fuels, which fuel many if not most of our climate change issues, presently enable most consumption; they're the source of 85 percent of commercial energy – and this must change.
Debora Ley with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 6th Assessment Report and ana Nuccitelli with the Citizens Climate Lobby talk with Host Bernice Butler about our Current State of the Planets’ Climate Change.
