Food Waste

A third of the food intended for human consumption – around 1.3 billion tons – is
wasted or lost. This is enough to feed 3 billion people. Food waste and loss account
for approximately one-quarter of greenhouse gas emissions annually; if it was a
country, food waste would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind
China and the US.
Food waste and loss occur at different stages in developing and developed
countries; in developing countries, 40% of food waste occurs at the post-harvest
and processing levels, while in developed countries, 40% of food waste occurs at
the retail and consumer levels.
At the retail level, a shocking amount of food is wasted because of aesthetic
reasons; in fact, in the US, more than 50% of all produce thrown away in the US is
done so because it is deemed to be “too ugly” to be sold to consumers- this
amounts to about 60 million tons of fruits and vegetables.
Biodiversity Loss
The past 50 years have seen a rapid growth of human consumption, population,
global trade and urbanisation, resulting in humanity using more of the Earth’s
resources than it can replenish naturally.
A 2020 WWF report found that the population sizes of mammals, fish, birds,
reptiles and amphibians have experienced a decline of an average of 68% between
1970 and 2016. The report attributes this biodiversity loss to a variety of factors
but mainly land-use change, particularly the conversion of habitats, like forests,
grasslands and mangroves, into agricultural systems. Animals such as pangolins,
sharks and seahorses are significantly affected by the illegal wildlife trade, and
pangolins are critically endangered because of it.
More broadly, a 2021 analysis has found that the sixth mass extinction of wildlife
on Earth is accelerating. More than 500 species of land animals are on the brink of
extinction and are likely to be lost within 20 years; the same number were lost over
the whole of the last century. The scientists say that without the human destruction
of nature, this rate of loss would have taken thousands of years.
In Antarctica, climate change-triggered melting of sea ice is taking a heavy toll on
emperor penguins and could wipe out entire populations by as early as 2100,
according to 2023 research.
Plastic Pollution
In 1950, the world produced more than 2 million tons of plastic per year. By 2015,
this annual production swelled to 419 million tons and exacerbating plastic waste
in the environment.
Currently, roughly 14 million tons of plastic make their way into the oceans every
year, harming wildlife habitats and the animals that live in them. Research found
that if no action is taken, the plastic crisis will grow to 29 million metric tons per
year by 2040. If we include microplastics into this, the cumulative amount of
plastic in the ocean could reach 600 million tons by 2040.
Some 91% of all plastic that has ever been made is not recycled, making it only
one of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime. Considering that plastic
takes 400 years to decompose, it will be many generations until it ceases to exist.
There is no telling what the irreversible effects of plastic pollution will have on the
environment in the long run.
To address the issue, the UN in 2022 initiated a process to create a legally binding
international treaty aimed at curbing plastic pollution, culminating in a meeting in
Busan, South Korea in November 2024.
The fifth round of negotiations was meant to finalize a treaty framework that
would address not only waste management but also the production and design of
plastics. However, the talks ended without agreement.
“It is clear there is persisting divergence in critical areas and more time is needed
for these areas to be addressed,” UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said on
the last day of the meeting as she adjourned negotiations to 2025.
Deforestation
Every hour, forests the size of 300 football fields are cut down. By the year 2030,
the planet might have only 10% of its forests; if deforestation is not stopped, they
could all be gone in less than a century.
The three countries experiencing the highest levels of deforestation are Brazil, the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. The Amazon, the world’s largest
rainforest – spanning 6.9 million square kilometres (2.72 million square miles) and
covering around 40% of the South American continent – is also one of the most
biologically diverse ecosystems and is home to about three million species of
plants and animals.
Despite efforts to protect forest land, legal deforestation is still rampant, and about
one-third of global tropical deforestation occurs in Brazil’s Amazon forest,
amounting to 1.5 million hectares each year.
Agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, another one of the biggest
environmental problems appearing on this list. Land is cleared to raise livestock or
to plant other crops that are sold, such as sugar cane and palm oil. Besides for
carbon sequestration, forests help to prevent soil erosion, because the tree roots
bind the soil and prevent it from washing away, which also prevents landslides.
Air Pollution
One of the biggest environmental problems today is outdoor air pollution.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 4.2 to 7 million
people die from air pollution worldwide every year and nine out of ten people
breathe air that contains high levels of pollutants. In Africa, 258,000 people died as
a result of outdoor air pollution in 2017, up from 164,000 in 1990, according
to UNICEF.
Causes of air pollution mostly comes from industrial sources and motor vehicles,
as well as emissions from burning biomass and poor air quality due to dust storms.
According to a 2023 study, air pollution in South Asia – one of the most polluted
areas in the world – cuts life expectancy by about five years. The study blames a
series of factors, including a lack of adequate infrastructure and funding for the
high levels of pollution in some countries. Most countries in Asia and Africa,
which together contribute about 92.7% of life years lost globally due to air
pollution, lack key air quality standards needed to develop adequate policies.
Moreover, just 6.8% and 3.7% of governments in the two continents, respectively,
provide their citizens with fully open-air quality data.
In Europe, a recent report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) showed
that more than half a million people living in EU countries died from health issues
directly linked to toxic pollutants exposure in 2021.