METEOROLOGISTS and climatologists are agreed the Earth, with an estimated 8.21 billion people by this date, is facing an ecological crisis.
This crisis is characterized by inter-related issues like climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, all significantly impacting the planet’s health and stability.
Scientists say these challenges arise from human activities, with the consequences potentially leading to ecosystem breakdown and species extinction if current trends are not reversed.
Climatologists have all these years been saying human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, have drastically increased greenhouse gas emissions, leading to rising global temperatures, altered weather patterns, and more frequent extreme weather events like heatwaves and floods.
They have deduced this warming trend is also contributing to melting glaciers and rising sea levels they say have risen 8-9 inches or 21-24 centimeters since 1880. In 2023, global average sea level set a new record high – 101.4 mm (3.99 inches) above 1993 levels.
They have also pointed to biodiversity loss, defined as habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change which are causing a decline in biodiversity, with a significant number of species facing extinction.
This loss, according to scientists, can disrupt the delicate balance of ecosystems and have far-reaching consequences for human health and well-being.
Then there is pollution in various forms, including air, water, and plastic pollution, which are impacting the environment and human health.
Instance, plastic pollution has been a major concern due to its persistence and harm to wildlife.
While raising climate change concerns, scientists have also sift the inter-related issues which they say are not isolated, but interconnected, citing as an example climate change can exacerbate biodiversity loss by altering habitats and increasing the risk of extinction.
Pollution, beyond doubt, can additionally strain ecosystems already under pressure from climate change and habitat loss.
Indeed the world is grappling with several environmental challenges that demand immediate attention and action.
We are experiencing what scientists call call a dangerous decline in nature and people are causing it.
Experts from the United Nations are also saying “We are using the equivalent of 1.6 Earths to maintain our current way of life and ecosystems cannot keep up with our demands, adding:
One million of the world’s estimated 8 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction.
75 percent of the Earth’s land surface has been significantly altered by human actions, including 85 percent of wetland areas.
66 percent of ocean area is impacted by human activities, including from fisheries and pollution.
Close to 90 percent of the world’s marine fish stocks are fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted.
