Deadly emissions, pollution, and accelerating destruction of ecosystems are driving worldwide epidemic.
A quarter of all premature deaths and diseases worldwide are due to man-made pollution and environmental damage, UN has stated in a landmark report on the planet's parlous state.
As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise amid a preponderance of droughts, floods and superstorms, there is a growing political consensus that climate change poses a future risk to billions. World leaders in 2015 came up with the Paris climate deal, which saw each nation promise action to cut emissions in a bid to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 Celsius.
It said that poor environmental conditions "cause approximately 25% of global disease and mortality" - around 9 million deaths in 2015 alone. Lacking access to clean drinking supplies, 1.4m people die each year from preventable diseases such as diarrhoea and parasites linked to pathogen-riddled water and poor sanitation.
Everyone is saying that by 2050 we have to feed 10bn people, but that doesn't mean we have to double production.
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