Climate change statistics are frightening. And its enormity is evident everywhere. At 52.3 degree Celsius, Delhi just hit India’s highest recorded temperature. In the last 170 years, 2.4 trillion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) have been added into our atmosphere, half of this was added in the last 50 years. Dozens of species of plants and animals go extinct each day – nearly 1,000 times the natural rate. By mid-century, as many as 30-50% of the species on Earth will have disappeared. Nearly 27% of coral reefs have been destroyed and the United States (US) alone throws away enough plastic bottles in a week to encircle the Earth 5 times! 

Climate scientists believe that the Earth is in the midst of a modern, man-made Sixth Extinction - the Fifth Mass Extinction occurred 66 million years ago, killing 78% of all species, including the remaining non-avian dinosaurs.

Scary facts about climate change

On World Environment Day (June 5), let’s delve into scary facts about climate change and the disastrous impact of human activity on the planet.

• Global temperature: 2023 was the hottest year on record. Average global temperatures in 2023 were 2.12 degrees F (1.18 degrees C) warmer than the 20th-century average — and higher than any other year since records began in 1850. Two-thirds of extreme weather events in the past 20 years were influenced by humans. The number of floods and instances of heavy rain have quadrupled since 1980 and doubled since 2004. Extreme temperatures, droughts, and wildfires have also more than doubled in the past 40 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report states with high confidence that 99% of coral reefs will be lost with just a 2°C increase in temperature.

• Carbon Dioxide: The concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere is the highest it has been in human history. The last time the atmosphere contained as much CO2 as it does now was more than three million years ago, when sea levels were much higher and trees grew on the South Pole. According to UN Climate Action, approximately 25% of the greenhouse gas emissions come from land clearing, crop production, and fertilisation, with animal-based food contributing the quarters of that number. Between 1990 and 2015, the richest 1% of the world’s population were responsible for more than twice as much carbon emissions as the poorest 50% of humanity.

• Extinction of plant/animal species: By mid-century, as many as 30-50% of the species on Earth will have disappeared. Dozens of species of plants and animals go extinct each day – nearly 1,000 times the natural rate. One million of the world’s estimated 8 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction. According to World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Living Planet Report 2020, between 1970 and 2016, there has been a 68% average decline in the population sizes of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish. The average size of vertebrate populations declined by 60% between 1970 and 2014 and the average wildlife populations have dropped by 60% in just over 40 years.

• Rising sea level: Scientists are predicting that by 2050, compared to the 2000 levels, global mean sea levels will rise almost 1 foot (0.28 metre) and above 3 feet (1 metre) by 2100. Almost two-thirds of the world’s cities with populations of over five million are located in areas at risk of sea level rise and almost 40% of the world’s population live within 100 km of a coast. If no action is taken, entire districts of New York, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, Osaka, Rio de Janeiro, and many other cities could find themselves underwater within our lifetimes. If sea levels continue to rise, it will have devastating impact on human existence including extreme weather, tidal flooding, land loss and coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and freshwater contamination, and, consequently, climate migration that might lead to refugee crisis.

• Food insecurity: The level of food insecurity in the world is already high, with 720 million to 811 million people being currently undernourished, while about 2.3 billion people being affected by malnutrition. Some 500 million people today live in areas affected by erosion, while up to 30% of food is lost or wasted as a result. Meanwhile, climate change limits the availability and quality of water for drinking and agriculture. In many regions, crops that have thrived for centuries are struggling to survive, making food security more precarious.

• Human health: Climate change is projected to adversely impact child undernutrition and stunting, undernutrition-related childhood mortality, diet-related morbidity and mortality and increase disability-adjusted life years lost, with the largest risks in Africa and Asia. The World Health Organisation (WHO) conservatively projects 250 000 additional yearly deaths by the 2030s due to climate change impacts on diseases like malaria and coastal flooding. In vulnerable regions, the death rate from extreme weather events in the last decade was 15 times higher than in less vulnerable ones.

• Are the rich more guilty?: The rich are primarily to blame for the global climate crisis, a study of 86 countries by the University of Leeds claims. Between 1990 and 2015, the richest 1% of the world’s population were responsible for more than twice as much carbon emissions as the poorest 50% of humanity. The estimated average carbon footprint of the world’s richest 1% could be up to 175 times larger than that of someone in the poorest 10%.

The real impact comes on the industrial level, as more than 70% of global emissions come from just 100 companies owned the richest in the world.

(Source: Earthday.org, UNEP, Nature Communications, Oxfam, the UN, WWF, WHO)