fact sheet
State of the World
A.D. 2023
Our environment, the natural world, is in a deplorable state, worse than it has ever been in human history. So bad, in fact, that it threatens our existence. Not in any distant future but right now in 2023. Incredibly, few people are aware of the full scale of the problem, although most people sense that something is very wrong. We have collected the worst threats from the most reliable sources we could find. You can explore them by clicking on the images below.
Environmental World News
- In September 2023 human overpopulation had risen by another 51 million on the year
- UN report warns mass extinction only decade away, will destroy food security for hundreds of millions of people
- Damage already done by humans to biodiversity in freshwater systems may take millions of years to undo
- Two thirds of sharks and rays living around coral reefs are threatened with extinction
- Greenpeace says Cop15 biodiversity conference did not deliver the ambition, tools or finance to stop mass extinction
- In 2022 eagles in North America are still being poisoned on a large scale by lead poisoning caused by hunters' ammunition.
- UN treaty to protect part of the oceans was concluded in March 2023, will take many years to come into force
- In March 2022 Australia's Great Barrier Reef suffered its sixth major bleaching since 1998, affecting 91%
- After one study found that one third of tree species face extinction, new study warns of disastrous consequences for ecosystems
- China's distant water fishing fleet of more than 10,000 vessels keeps on overfishing all the seas of the world
- Against scientific advice Norway and Sweden allow trophy hunters to kill large proportion of their (tiny) wolf populations
- Sweden also allowed trophy hunters to kill hundreds of lynxes while other European countries need them to replace losses
- Coto Donana, one of Europe's principal wetlands has dried up, mainly due to human extraction of water for farming and tourism
- Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon fell by 34% in first half of 2023, thanks to new policies
- Despite being systematically underreported CO2 emissions once again reached a record high in 2022
- CO2 in the atmosphere keeps on rising; many records were broken in April 2023 reaching 424.83, almost 4 ppm higher than in 2022
- In the second quarter of 2023 China's CO2 levels rose by 10% vs 2022, rising about 1% above previous record
- Bottom trawling by fishing boats releases massive quantities of CO2; China by far the greatest offender
- In 2022 methane concentrations in the atmosphere rose by the fourth-largest amount since measurements began.
- Studies show that global warming accelerates natural emissions of methane and also slows down its removal from the atmosphere
- Globally June 2023 was the hottest June on record
- Globally July 2023 was the hottest month on record
- Globally the year 2022 was the fifth hottest year on record, in Europe it was the hottest year.
- The 2022 heatwave in India and Pakistan was the worst in 60 years
- In July 2023 the Mediterranean Sea reached the highest temperature on record
- Many thousands of heat records were broken around the world in 2022, and again in 2023
- In March 2022 extreme heatwaves on the north and south poles raised temperatures to 40 and 30 degrees celcius above normal
- In July 2023 the WMO declared that El Nino (a warming Pacific climate pattern) has officially started and is likely to bring more heat
- In April 2023 the temperature of the oceans rose to record levels
- Antarctic sea ice reached a record low in August 2023
- A recent scientific paper reveals that the melting of the world's glaciers has nearly doubled in speed over the past 20 years
- New UN report reveals that globally droughts have increased by 29% since 2000
- In the first half of 2023 hydropower fell by 22% in China as a result of droughts
- Data of the World Health Organization show that 99% of the global population breathe unhealthy air
- Plastic consumption and pollution are on track to double by 2050
- Recent studies show that phthalates, chemicals used in many plastics, damage children's brain development and reduce male fertility.
- A new study finds that rainwater has become unsafe to drink all over the world because of the presence of harmful chemicals
- Since the Paris climate deal in 2015 the world's 60 biggest banks have financed fossil fuel companies with 5.5 trillion dollars through 2022
- Congo is going to auction oil and gas permits in a critically endangered gorilla habitat
- During annual conference in Houston in March 2023 major oil companies vow to fuel the destruction of the planet for as long as they possibly can
- In June 2023 US Administration blocks oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after approving massive oil project in Alaska earlier this year
- According to the IMF fossil fuel subsidies rose to a record of 7 trillion dollars in 2022
- Ahead of COP28 both China and Russia have rejected any plan to phase out fossil fuels
- September 2023 was the warmest September since records began 174 years ago
Threats to the environment
Threats to Human Society
Quarterly updates
The reasons why most of these problems are being ignored are many. The most essential one is probably our alienation from nature, our natural environment. Nowadays most people live in a (sub)urban, artificial world, largely unaware of the real, natural world, although they are totally dependent on that world for food, water and breathable air.
Another reason why people are so poorly informed is the woeful coverage of environmental issues by the media. This is, of course, largely due to our general ignorance of the environment but also because most media are commercial enterprises, intent on giving the people what they want rather than what they need. On a more sinister note, many media outlets are also manipulated by the corporate world, which opposes any mention of environmental issues because it might lead to measures that endanger their profits.
And yet, the plight of our environment is vitally important to all 8.1 billion of us. In a non-suicidal society it should be front page news every day, keeping track of all the ominous changes that may very well ruin us if we don’t deal with them soon. Instead, this unfolding nightmare receives only a tiny fraction of the attention it demands.
Daily news is dominated by things like the economy, business, political squabbles, the antics of celebrities, crime and terrorism, none of which are remotely as important as the well-being of the only planet we have.
This goes a long way to explain why so few people know how bad things are.
In a recent Gallup poll less than 5% of the interviewees considered the environment/pollution the most important problem facing the USA, even though in America air pollution alone is responsible for more than 100,000 deaths a year while roughly 120 million Americans breathe air that is harmful for their health and can shorten their lives.
The people are simply being let down by those who should inform them.