We have been exploiting and destroying our planet’s ecosystems for too long. Every three seconds, the world loses enough forest to cover a football pitch. Half of our wetlands have been destroyed over the last century.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) finds that a brief dip in carbon dioxide emissions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will make no significant difference to long-term climate change. The world is still heading for a catastrophic temperature rise in excess of 3°C this century – far beyond the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C.