• Heat-trapping carbon emissions from burning coal and oil have built up in the atmosphere to levels not seen in 650,000 years. This is leading to a ‘hothouse effect’ that is causing massive changes in the climate system.
• Global climate change is advancing more rapidly than anyone predicted, with melting glaciers, changes in long-established seasonal patterns, and increasingly wild freak storms.
• The effects of climate change and degraded habitat are already displacing millions of people from rural communities. Many environmental refugees now live in desperate situations of urban poverty.
• The gap between the richest and the poorest has been widening for decades.
• While a relative few people hold untold riches, a huge number of people suffer from malnutrition, lack of drinkable water, and preventable or curable disease.
• Half of the world’s tropical forests – the lungs of our ecosystems – are gone. By 2030, at the current rate of harvest, only 10% will be left standing.
• Half the world’s wetlands – the kidneys of our ecosystems – were eliminated in the 20th century.
• Species extinction is taking place at a rate 1,000 times greater than before humans existed. Species and ecosystems are being destroyed at a rate drastically faster than nature can replace them with new ones.
• Ninety percent of the big fish in the sea are gone, as a result of over-fishing.
• We are polluting our lakes, rivers and streams to death. 80% of the world’s rivers are now in peril, affecting 5 billion people on the planet.
• Our main source of transportable energy – oil – is rapidly being depleted. The investment in alternative sources of energy is miniscule compared to the need.

At the same time, solutions exist! With the wisdom and power of millions of people focused on solutions, we can change course.