Please Rotate Your Device

CHAPTER 1

We are living as if there’s no tomorrow

Living as if There's No Tomorrow
Photo: UNDP Democratic Republic of Congo

Our appetite for arable land is out of control, and as a result we face rampant deforestation. We lose 18.7 million acres of forests per year—that's 27 soccer fields every minute.

We use nearly 9 billion tons of fresh water every day, much faster than nature can replenish it, and one in four people face a looming water crisis.

Water
Photo: UNDP Afghanistan/S. Omer Sadaat

A ‘use-it-and-lose-it’ culture is building literal mountains and oceans of trash, most of which will never be recycled. Plastic microfibres are found in most drinking water.

We use about five and a half billion pounds of pesticides every year and two out of every five hectares of land is degraded or contaminated.

Ocean
Photo: UNDP Peru/Sally Jabiel

Making real change is an immense and multifaceted task.

But it can, and must, be done.