15 BIGGEST

ENVIRONMENTAL
PROBLEMS OF 2024
1. Global Warming From Fossil
Fuels
• 2023 was the hottest year on record, with global average temperatures at 1.46C
above pre-industrial levels and 0.13C higher than the eleven-month average for
2016, currently the warmest calendar year on record.

• What’s more, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have never been so high. After
being consistently around 280 parts per million (ppm) for almost 6,000 years of
human civilisation, CO2 levels in the atmosphere are now well above 420
ppm, more than double what they were before the onset of the Industrial
Revolution in the 19th century. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) Administrator Rick Spinrad, the steady annual increase is
a “direct result of human activity,” mainly from the burning of fossil
fuels for transportation and electricity generation but also from cement
manufacturing, deforestation, and agriculture.
It’s getting
higher and
higher
2. Poor Governance
According to economists like Nicholas Stern, the climate crisis is a result
of multiple market failures.

• Economists and environmentalists have urged policymakers for years

to increase the price of activities that emit greenhouse gases (one of
our biggest environmental problems), the lack of which constitutes the
largest market failure, for example through carbon taxes, which will
stimulate innovations in low-carbon technologies.
A national carbon tax is currently implemented in
27 countries around the world, including various
countries in the EU, Canada, Singapore, Japan,
Ukraine and Argentina.

Further, organisations such as the United Nations are not fit to

deal with the climate crisis: it was assembled to prevent
another world war and is not fit for purpose. Anyway,
members of the UN are not mandated to comply with any
suggestions or recommendations made by the organisation.
For example, the Paris Agreement, a historic deal within
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), says that countries need to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions significantly so that global temperature rise is
 3. 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 emis
sions annually
; if it was a country, food waste would be the
third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind
China and the US.
4. 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.
In Antarctica, climate
change-triggered melting
of sea ice is taking a
heavy toll on emperor
penguins and
could wipe out entire pop
ulations by as early as 21
00
, according to 2023
research.
5. Plastic Pollution

In 1950, the world

produced more than
2 million tons of plastic p
er year
. By 2015, this annual
production swelled to
419 million tons and
exacerbating plastic
waste in the
environment.
• A report by science journal, Nature, determined that 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. The 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.
• Shockingly, National Geographic found that 91% of all plastic that has
ever been made is not recycled, representing not only one of the
biggest environmental problems of our lifetime, but another massive
market failure. Considering that plastic takes 400 years to
decompose, it will be many generations until it ceases to exist.
There’s no telling what the irreversible effects of plastic pollution will
have on the environment in the long run.
6. Deforestation
6. 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
isn’t stopped, they could all be gone in less than
100 years.

• 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.
3 MAIN CAUSES OF
DEFORESTATION
•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,
7. Air Pollution

• One of the biggest environmental problems today is outdoor

air pollution.

• Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that an

estimated 4.2 to 7 million people die from air pollution worldwide
every year and that nine out of 10 people breathe air that contains
high levels of pollutants.
According to a 2023 study, air pollution in
South Asia – one of the most polluted
areas in the world –
cuts life expectancy by about 5 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 the
European Union died from health issues directly linked to toxic
pollutants exposure in 2021.
8. Melting Ice Caps and Sea Level Rise

The climate crisis is warming the Arctic

more than twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. Today, sea levels
are rising more than twice as quickly as they did for most of the 20th
century as a result of increasing temperatures on Earth. Seas are now rising
an average of 3.2 mm per year globally and they will continue to grow up to
about 0.7 metres by the end of this century. In the Arctic, the
Greenland Ice Sheet poses the greatest risk for sea levels because melting
land ice is the main cause of rising sea levels.
According to 2023 data,
the continent has lost approximately 7.5 trillion tons of ic
e since 1997
. Additionally, the last fully intact ice shelf in Canada in
the Arctic recently collapsed, having lost about 80 square
kilometres – or 40% – of its area over a two-day period in
late July, according to the Canadian Ice Service.
Sea level rise will have a devastating impact on those living in coastal
regions: according to research and advocacy group Climate Central, sea
level rise this century could flood coastal areas that are now home to
340 million to 480 million people, forcing them to migrate to safer
areas and contributing to overpopulation and strain of resources in the
areas they migrate to. Bangkok (Thailand), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam),
Manila (Philippines), and Dubai (United Arab Emirates) are
among the cities most at risk of sea level rise and flooding.
9. Ocean Acidification
• Global temperature rise has not only affected the surface,
but it is the main cause of ocean acidification. Our oceans
absorb about 30% of carbon dioxide that is released into the
Earth’s atmosphere. As higher concentrations of carbon
emissions are released thanks to human activities such as
burning fossil fuels as well as effects of global climate
change such as increased rates of wildfires, so do the
amount of carbon dioxide that is absorbed back into the
sea.
One of the biggest environmental problems from ocean acidification is coral
bleaching and subsequent coral reef loss. This is a phenomenon that occurs when
rising ocean temperatures disrupt the symbiotic relationship between the reefs and
algae that lives within it, driving away the algae and causing coral reefs to lose their
natural vibrant colours. Some scientists have estimated coral reefs are at risk of
being completely wiped by 2050.
Anak ni
Shopee
10. Fast Fashion and Textile Waste
• The global demand for fashion and clothing has risen at an
unprecedented rate that the fashion industry now accounts for 10% of
global carbon emissions, becoming one of the biggest environmental
problems of our time. Fashion alone produces more greenhouse gas
emissions than both the aviation and shipping sectors combined, and
nearly 20% of global wastewater, or around 93 billion cubic metres from
textile dyeing, according to the UN Environment Programme.

• What’s more, the world at least generated an estimated 92 million

tonnes of textiles waste every year and that number is expected to soar
up to 134 million tonnes a year by 2030. Discarded clothing and textile
waste, most of which is non-biodegradable, ends up in landfills, while
microplastics from clothing materials such as polyester, nylon,
polyamide, acrylic and other synthetic materials, is leeched into soil and
nearby water sources.
11. Overfishing
• Over three billion people around the world rely on
fish as their primary source of protein. About 12%
of the world relies upon fisheries in some form or
another, with 90% of these being small-scale
fishermen – think a small crew in a boat, not a
ship, using small nets or even rods and reels and
lures not too different from the kind you probably u
se
. Of the 18.9 million fishermen in the world, 90% of
them fall under the latter category.
As part of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG 14), the UN and FAO are
working towards maintaining the proportion of fish stocks
within biologically sustainable levels. This, however,
requires much stricter regulations of the world’s oceans
than the ones already in place. In July 2022, the
WTO banned fishing subsidies to reduce global overfishing
in a historic deal. Indeed, subsidies for fuel, fishing gear,
and building new vessels, only incentivise overfishing and
12.Soil Degradation

• Organic matter is a crucial component of soil

as it allows it to absorb carbon from the
atmosphere. Plants absorb CO2 from the air
naturally and effectively through
photosynthesis and part of this carbon is
stored in the soil as soil organic carbon
(SOC). Healthy soil has a minimum of 3-6%
organic matter. However, almost everywhere
in the world, the content is much lower than
that.
 GAME
"How Long
Does It Last?"
ANSWER:

450 YEARS
ALUMINUM CAN
ANSWER:

80-200 YEARS
GLASS BOTTLE
ANSWER:

1 million years
(effectively never
decomposes naturally)
BANANA PEEL
ANSWER:

2-5 weeks
CARBOARD
ANSWER:

2 MONTHS
CIGARETTE BUTTS
ANSWER:

1-5 YEARS
FABRIC or TEXTILE WASTE
ANSWER:

can take up to 200+

years to decompose in
landfills
DISPOSABLE DIAPER
ANSWER:

500 years
TRIVIA!!!!

There is a
a

Biodegradable
Diaper made
out of Bamboo.
STROFOAM CUPS
ANSWER:

According to Washington University,

Styrofoam takes 500 years to
decompose; it cannot be recycled, so
the Styrofoam cups dumped in landfills
are there to stay.
THANK YOU