The Wildlife Trusts’ annual challenge – 30 Days Wild – calls on everyone to go wild every day in June.

This year looks set to be bigger and wilder than ever. So far a record number of 60,000 people, families, schools, businesses and care homes throughout the UK have signed up to receive a free pack of ideas and to take part.

30 Days Wild encourages everyone to enjoy nature in our neighbourhoods through daily Random Acts of Wildness: listening to bird song, gazing at butterflies, growing borage for bees and making the most of our parks, gardens and school grounds. Evidence shows that taking part can also make us happier and healthier.

Fantastic challenge

Ellie Harrison, presenter of Countryfile and President of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, said: “Being outside in nature makes us all well. The smallest moments connecting – the surprise of a beetle revealing its wings; the fleeting secrets of bats at dusk; or the puff of valuable pollen from flowers we saw as weeds – all bring us wonder and enchantment.

“This June we’re challenging you to a Random Act of Wildness every single day of the month. What will you be delighted by?”

James McVey of The Vamps said: “30 Days Wild is a fantastic challenge and everyone can take part – whether it’s building a den, listening to the dawn chorus or visiting a favourite wild place, enjoying our wonderful wildlife can help us to feel happier and healthier, I’ll be joining in this June!”

Dr Amir Khan from Channel 5’s GPs Behind Closed Doors said: “Spending time outdoors, enjoying wildlife on our doorstep and in our communities is free and can benefit our mental and physical health in so many ways.

“Spend a few moments every day in June taking part in random acts of wildness – notice something new in nature, climb a tree or create space for nature in your neighbourhood – The Wildlife Trusts has lots of ideas and inspiration to help you make the most of the 30 Days Wild challenge. Go Wild!”

Happier and healthier 

The Wildlife Trust’s Leanne Manchester said: “30 Days Wild is a much-loved challenge and it’s set to be an exciting month for everyone taking part. Experiencing a moment of nature every day on our doorstep or during lunchtime at work is elating in June when wildlife is so active and visible.

“Take time out to sit in a wild spot, enjoy the sunset or feel cool grass between your toes – June is such a beautiful month and the perfect time to go a bit wild.”

The impact of taking part in 30 Days Wild has been tracked by academics at the University of Derby. Their study found that people who did something ‘wild’ each day for a month, felt happier, healthier and more connected to nature, with added benefits for the natural world too.

Miles Richardson from the University of Derby said: “Our research looked at the impact of 30 Days Wild on 1000 people, two months after completing the challenge.

“All those taking part benefitted, feeling 30 percent healthier than when they started on average. People who reported a disconnect from nature and who spend less time outdoors, showed the greatest improvement in happiness and pro-conservation behaviours.

“At a time when poor mental health is on the rise and the decline of our wildlife show no sign of slowing down, 30 Days Wild demonstrates what a much-needed new relationship with nature might look like, for everyone, throughout the year.”

Care homes

This year 30 Days Wild is encouraging care homes to share the joy of nature with their residents. For the first time, there’s a specially tailored activity pack and over 350 care homes have so far signed up to take part.

Among them is the Your Health Ltd group, which has ten care homes across England and trialled 30 Days Wild activities last year. The homes saw some remarkable benefits as a result of taking part, with residents experiencing less anxiety and fewer falls.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust volunteer Louise Baker, who trialled activities in the residential homes last year, said: “It doesn’t matter where our homes are, each will take something from the challenge and no two days, or activities will be the same.

“Our homes occupy urban streets, landscaped parkland and rural locations – one home will enjoy the birdsong heard in its suburban garden, while another will record wildlife that thrives in its wildflower meadow and orchard. We are looking forward to another magical month.”

Sign-up to 30 Days Wild is still open, download a free pack! Over the next month, thousands of wonderful experiences will be shared on social media. Take a look at #30DaysWild @30DaysWild and see how daily connections with nature are inspiring people to enjoy the wild world around them wherever they live. 

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is content editor for The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from the Wildlife Trust. 

Image: Stockypics, Flickr. 

News of devastating climate change, species extinction and dwindling green spaces around the world rolls in daily. It has never been more important that we take action to protect nature on our own doorstep.

The North Devon UNESCO Biosphere Partnership is extremely concerned by the pressure on North Devon’s world class environment from rapid development and intensive land use. 

In response, we are  launching Pledge for Nature! – a new local initiative to galvanise community action for nature’s recovery.

Natural systems

Intensive land use has led to rapid declines in the quality of some habitats and populations of some of our key species like breeding cuckoos, lapwings and curlews in our farmland, salmon, sea trout and freshwater pearl mussels in the Taw and Torridge river systems, and even commoner species like hedgehogs, swallows and house martins, wildflowers and insects.

The declines of these “canaries” of our natural systems should be a wake-up call for everyone. Immediate action is needed to help North Devon’s nature to flourish again in our farmland, gardens, rivers and open spaces.

North Devon’s local economy of agriculture, tourism, forestry and fisheries depends on the natural environment, and our natural systems are also crucial for tackling climate change and safeguarding future generations.

It is therefore essential to maintain the world class environment of the area, which was the reason north Devon was awarded UNESCO status. 

Call to action

The priority is to give more space for nature and to create wilder areas – in our farmland, public spaces and gardens.

Small bands of dedicated volunteers, farmers and conservation organisations are already working hard to conserve nature – but their efforts are not enough and the problems can only be solved by galvanising many more people who know and love the area. 

Each quarter the project will issue a “call to action” with 3-4 projects to engage the community in voluntary actions for nature. Examples might be: “give 10 percent of your lawn over to a wildflower meadow”; “trim your farm hedges every 3 years rather than every year”; “put up a nestbox for swifts”; “join a community tree-planting team”. 

Individuals will be able to pledge their action on a map-based website, where they will also find technical advice and support from Biosphere partners.

Over three years, starting late autumn 2019, we aim to engage a minimum of 1000 volunteers, including at least 100 farmers/landowners.

Get involved

Through these voluntary actions, we aim to improve nature in at least: 400ha of pasture and arable land, 50km of hedges; 200ha of woodland, 300 gardens, 30 urban spaces or schools, 20km of road verges and 20km of rivers and streams.

We also aim to deliver specific targeted actions for at least 5 priority or declining species or invasive non-native species, and encourage at least 10,000 new trees. 

The total cost of this three-year project will be around £90,000. We are asking the National Lottery Heritage Fund to cover the majority of the coordination costs, but we urgently need your help to raise at least £10,000 as match funding to demonstrate that our community cares. 

If you love North Devon’s nature, help us by donating here, and telling your family, friends, employers and colleagues to help too! 

Bright future 

Tourism, forestry, agriculture and fishing – the mainstays of our local economy – depend on a thriving natural environment, which is also crucial for safeguarding us from the effects of climate change.

But nature in North Devon is in trouble: breeding birds such as cuckoos, lapwings and curlews are heading towards local extinction.

Salmon and freshwater pearl mussels in the Taw and Torridge rivers are in grave decline. Swifts, house martins, hedgehogs, bees and butterflies are becoming less and less abundant.

More than 92 percent of our flower-rich Culm grassland has disappeared over the past 100 years. These shocking statistics should serve as a wake-up call to us all.

It’s a grave situation, but with community action and support, we believe North Devon’s environmental fortunes can be given a bright future for the benefit of future generations. 

This Author 

Mike Moser is chair of the Nature Improvement Group at North Devon UNESCO Biosphere. If you love North Devon’s nature, help us by donating here, and telling your family, friends, employers and colleagues to help too! 

Image: A_Peach, Flickr. 

The quarterly update of Australia’s greenhouse gases, which span December 2018 to March 2019, showed a 0.7 percent hike in emissions.

All sectors were up, save for agriculture and electricity. Pollution from the manufacturing, construction and commercial sectors and domestic heating shot up by 6 percent.

The figures were released five days past their due date, despite a senate order calling on the government to meet the deadline. But before they were made public, the data did appear alongside an interview with energy and emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor in The Australian.

Pollution data

Energy and emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor told the newspaper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, that the country was on track to honour its Paris Agreement target of 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. He has previously said this would be done “in a canter”.

Data published by the Department of Environment and Energy in December, however, showed that the country was on course to reduce its emissions by 7 percent by 2030.

Shadow minister for climate change and energy Mark Butler simply dismissed Taylor’s comments as “a lie”.

Deputy leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt said: “The minister has continued with his contempt of the parliament, seemingly dropping the pollution figures to the Murdoch media before making them public.

“We wouldn’t accept the government selectively dropping the regular unemployment figures to its favourite media outlet. This pollution data needs to be released promptly, regularly and transparently.”

Cemented failure

It continues a trend of rising emissions since 2016, making the Paris target increasingly difficult to achieve, experts warned.

Climate analyst Ketan Joshi told Climate Home News: “The fact that we haven’t made a big dent in it, is very, very worrying.

“We have made reductions in our electricity sector, a lot of that comes down to technologies such as wind and solar. That is often framed as us on the way to meeting our Paris target, but of course that’s just one sector of Australia’s emissions.”

Head of the climate and energy programme at the Australia Institute think tank Richie Merzian told Climate Home News the newly released data also cemented the failure of one of the government’s key policies to combat climate change: the Climate Solutions Fund.

The fund, which incentivises emissions cuts rather than penalising polluters, has been “insufficient in terms of the reductions that were supposed to flow from the abatement purchase”, he said.

Top issue

In April, the Coalition government axed the fund further, opting to spread $2bn over 15 years rather than 10 years.

Merzian said: “So their plan is to do less of the same, and that plan has failed today and will continue to fail.” The government has said it intends to meet the Paris target using credits won in the era of the Kyoto Protocol – a measure most countries have ruled out.

Merzian continued: “Even with Australian government planning to use its credits from Kyoto, it will still fail.” 

The government’s delayed release of the figures comes amid growing awareness on climate change in Australia.

A poll by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation found that the environment ranked a top issue for 29 percent of participants, up by 9 percent in the 2016 election.

This Author 

Natalie Sauer reports for Climate Home News. She has contributed to a variety of international outlets, including Politico Europe, AFP and The Ecologist. This article was first published on Climate Home News.

Ibedrola is currently consulting the environment ministry over building a 590-megawatt solar farm in the Western region of Extramadurra, it said in a statement.

With a €300 million investment planned, the so-called Francisco Pizzarro plant will supply energy to 375,000 people every year and employ up to 1000 people in the process of construction, the company said.

The announcement comes amid increasingly competitive renewables prices and a favourable political atmosphere.

Falling costs

Since becoming minister for the ecological transition almost exactly one year ago Teresa Ribera has introduced climate legislation aiming to achieve 100 percent renewables by 2050.

In early October, Ribera scrapped the so-called “sun tax” – an unpopular levy on solar power affecting individuals and small businesses.

The government has also pledged to install between 6,000 and 7,000MW of renewable power every year until 2030.

Sergio de Otto, head of the Renewables Foundation told Climate Home News: “It’s clear that policies led by Teresa Ribera have given investors more confidence to throw themselves into projects like the one that Ibedrola has announced.” 

De Otto said costs for building renewable energy were falling “spectacularly”.

Extra growth

De Otto continued: “From our perspective, it is necessary that we – citizens and small businesses – lead the energy transition to 100 percent renewables by 2050, but we also understand the need for large solar plants produced by companies.

“We believe that in future these great installations will coexist with an extraordinary growth in small-scale renewables production. These are therefore two complementary models”

This Author 

Natalie Sauer reports for Climate Home News. She has contributed to a variety of international outlets, including Politico Europe, AFP and The Ecologist. This article was first published on Climate Home News. 

The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is facing intense pressure over its controversial oil sponsor, BP.

Artist Gary Hume – one of BP Portrait Award (BPPA) judges – wrote to NPG Director Nicholas Cullinan calling for an end to BP’s sponsorship of the prize on the eve of the award ceremony. 

The Brighton-based artist Charlie Schaffer was announced as the winner of the award during a National Portrait Gallery reception last night.

Climate emergency

Eight leading portrait artists previously shortlisted for the award multiple times – including two former winners – have echoed Hume’s demand and sent their own letter calling for the Gallery ‘to not simply acknowledge the climate emergency, but to act accordingly’.

This comes just months after the Gallery rejected a £1 million grant from the Sackler Trust over its ties to the opioid crisis in the US and led to Tate, the Guggenheim and other major cultural institutions shunning future donations from the family.

Judge and artist Gary Hume came to prominence as part of the Young British Artists movement in the ’90s, has been shortlisted for the Turner Prize and elected to the Royal Academy.

He expressed his ‘discomfort’ at BP’s continued sponsorship of the annual portrait prize in his letter to Cullinan (full text below), citing the ‘undeniable’ evidence that our planet is rapidly changing and that BP is ‘actively exacerbating that crisis’:

Hume said: “Recognising that we are in a climate emergency means taking steps that we might not have planned for and, for me, refusing to launder the oil industry’s image is a step that the art world now needs to take.”

Artistic decisions

Hume also calls for an end to the practice of BP’s Head of Arts, Culture & Paralympics sitting on the award’s judging panel: “No corporate funder should compromise our artistic integrity.

“There should be no role for an oil company in the artistic decisions of any cultural organisation, and especially not in determining the winner of the world’s leading portrait award.”

Highly respected portrait artists, including BP Portrait Award winners Wim Heldens (2011) and Craig Wylie (2008), are also speaking out. 

The artists highlighted the pressure the Gallery puts on artists to compromise on their values in a letter to Cullinan to sent yesterday: “That we must be prepared to associate our work with BP, providing a veneer of respectability to one of the world’s worst polluters and drivers of environmental destruction simply to participate, is deeply unfair.”

Last month, BP received widespread criticism at its AGM over its billion dollar investments in new oil and gas, a business plan which fails to align with the Paris climate goals. The company was also challenged over its continued attempts to obstruct climate legislation.

Shifting consciousness 

The other artists – all former BPPA winners, shortlisted artists and exhibitors – are Paul Benney (has exhibited at 8 BPPAs, won the public choice award twice and been shortlisted twice), Henry Christian-Slane (won the BP Young Artist award in 2017), Alan Coulson (selected for the BP Portrait Award in 2010, 2011, 2012 (winning third prize) and 2014), David Eichenberg (has exhibited 3 times and came 3rd in 2010), Darvish Fakhr (won the BP Travel Award in 2004, also exhibited in 4 other years) and Raoul Martinez (has exhibited 3 times).

The Gallery has regularly faced opposition to its BP sponsorship deal, from creative activist actions inside the Award exhibition to winner of the 2017 Young Portrait Award (and letter signatory) Henry Christian-Slane donating a share of his prize money to Greenpeace in protest at the oil company.

In the same year, Culture Unstained submitted a formal complaint outlining how the Gallery’s BP partnership breached key human rights clauses of its ‘Ethical Fundraising Policy’.

Jess Worth, Co-Director of Culture Unstained, said: “It is unprecedented for an award’s judge to speak out against its sponsor, and extremely brave of artists who have previously benefited from the award to do the same.

“This is a sign of how dramatically consciousness about climate change has shifted just in the last few months. Sticking its fingers in its ears and hoping this all goes away is no longer an option for the National Portrait Gallery. It must now drop BP or face catastrophic damage to its reputation.”

Due diligence

Chris Garrard, Co-Director of Culture Unstained, added: “The Gallery’s significant decision to reject a grant from the Sackler Trust came after careful scrutiny from its ‘Advisory Ethics Committee’, a body newly created last year.

“Its BP sponsorship deal is yet to face the same scrutiny. In fact, the Gallery has previously admitted it has no record of any proper ‘due diligence’ checks on its BP partnership.

“The Gallery must demonstrate that it is consistent in its decision-making, otherwise the public will rightly question why BP is getting special treatment and a seat on the judging panel.”

BP has sponsored the Portrait Award for 30 years, taking over from the tobacco giant John Player. Its current 5-year sponsorship deal was announced in 2016 alongside deals with the British Museum (sponsoring special exhibitions); the Royal Opera House (to continue sponsoring the annual ‘BP Big Screens’) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (where BP currently sponsors ‘BP £5 tickets’, the scheme for 16-25 year olds).

Tragedy

All these institutions are coming under increasing pressure to drop BP, with the British Museum in February facing the biggest protest in its 260-year history, by activist theatre group BP or not BP?, which made the links between BP’s activities in Iraq, climate change, war and colonialism.

On Tuesday the Royal Opera House will face its biggest ever protest from hundreds of Extinction Rebellion activists, who have pledged to creatively disrupt the flagship ‘BP Big Screen’ broadcast of Romeo and Juliet in Trafalgar Square, by ‘acting out the world’s greatest tragedy as you’ve never seen it before’.

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release from Culture Unstained. 

Image: A performance by Children Against Global Warming at the National Portrait Gallery in August 2015, during Art Not Oil’s Festivoil Day of Action. Philip Grey, courtesy Art Not Oil. Source: Hyperallergic.

Billions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money is supporting fossil fuel energy schemes around the world, undermining the UK’s commitment to tackle climate breakdown, MPs said.

UK Export Finance (UKEF), which provides loans, insurance and guarantees for firms operating overseas, gave £2.5 billion to fossil fuel projects between 2013/14 and 2017/18.

The Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) called on the government to end support for new fossil fuel energy projects by 2021.

Billions

The EAC said there was an “unacceptably high” level of support for fossil fuel projects in poorer countries, with £2.4 billion of the funding going to low or middle-income nations, potentially locking them into decades of dependency on oil and gas.

The committee’s chairwoman Mary Creagh said: “Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 will mean ending our addiction to dirty fossil fuels.

“The Government claims that the UK is a world leader on tackling climate change, but behind the scenes the UK’s export finance schemes are handing out billions of pounds of taxpayers money to develop fossil fuel projects in poorer countries. This locks them into dependency on high carbon energy for decades to come.

Mix

“This is unacceptable. It is time for the government to put its money where its mouth is and end UK Export Finance’s support for fossil fuels.”

A UKEF spokesman said: “The UK Government fully recognises the importance of tackling climate change and the need for a mix of energy sources and technologies as the world transitions to a low carbon economy.

“We welcome the committee’s report and are working with colleagues across government to consider our response.”

This Author

David Hughes is the Press Association’s political editor. 

A unique, free online gardening resource to help people growing more flowers for bumblebees and other pollinating insects has been launched at the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show in the Peak District. 

The conservation charity’s upgraded, interactive ‘Bee kind’ web tool helps people across the UK choose the best plants for pollinators – including native ‘bee super plants’, such as apple trees, bugle, foxglove, lavender, and red clover.

Users can find out and score how bee-friendly their patch already is, and how to improve it for pollinators, with advice based on conditions in their own gardens.

Vital information

Users can also discover how to ensure bumblebees have a lifeline of food even in months when nectar-rich plants are in short supply. 

Gill Perkins, Bumblebee Conservation Trust CEO, said: “Bee kind provides people with vital information to make bee-friendly choices in their gardens and green spaces.

“With so much worry about insect declines, it’s useful to know there are simple, positive actions we can all take. If everyone planted just one bee-friendly plant we could make a huge difference to bumblebees and other insect pollinators.”

Bee kind is available at here and can be used by schools, businesses, councils and the public. It can also help local authorities deliver national and local pollinator strategies.

The tool includes a database of more than 650 plant species – never collected for pollinators in this way before – with many images generously provided by the Royal Horticultural Society and Floral Images. 

Citizen science

The charity’s experts spent a year upgrading Bee kind – including by reviewing the latest scientific evidence about the best plants for bees – with invaluable input from volunteers and Plantlife.

The tool will be updated as more data becomes available, including citizen science feedback from users.

The work was led by the Trust’s Senior Science and Policy Officer Darryl Cox, who said: “Redeveloping Bee kind has been a collaborative effort involving a lot of people, and the result is an exceptional educational resource that people across the country can use to help bumblebees and other pollinators survive and thrive.”

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has created Bee kind for UK-wide use through the charity’s Pollinating the Peak project, supported by funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Jonathan Platt, Head of the National Lottery Heritage Fund East Midlands, said: “I’m delighted we have been able to support Pollinating the Peak thanks to the generosity of National Lottery players.”

Nectar-rich habitats

Platt continued: “Bee kind is an important resource which will enable us all to turn our love for bumblebees into action – creating havens for bumblebees in our gardens and green spaces whatever their size.”

Pollinating the Peak is taking action for bumblebees in the Peak District and Derbyshire, including by encouraging people to use Bee kind to create more nectar-rich habitat in their gardens and communities.

Bumblebee populations have crashed and two species have become extinct in the UK during the last 80 years. For information about the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, visit the website.

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. 

Protesters from across Europe descended on the headquarters of the European Investment Bank (EIB) last week to demand an immediate end to the public bank’s financial support of fossil fuel projects around the world.

This was the first time that the EIB’s head office has ever been directly targeted in this way.

The action is taking place just one week before EU Finance Ministers – the EIB’s Board of Governors – will be holding meetings to review the bank’s energy lending policies.

Mounting pressure

Dozens of protesters representing at least twelve countries blocked the bank’s entrance. The Executive Director of the EIB was invited to join participants as they listened to the testimonies of representatives from communities around the world who are fighting against new fossil fuel projects funded by the EIB.

Participants used art, songs and chants to demand an immediate end to financial support for fossil fuel companies and projects.

The bank is facing mounting pressure to update their lending policies in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change as public awareness of the scale and urgency of the crisis continues to grow.

The Governors of the EIB are publicly elected finance ministers of EU member states and, as such, have a responsibility to act in accordance with national and international climate targets. Public pressure to ensure that they do this has increased considerably in recent months as a result of the school strikes and other climate movements that have been sweeping Europe.

A number of protests have targeted the financial sector in particular, highlighting the role of both public and private finance in propping up the fossil fuel industry and driving climate breakdown. More such actions are expected in the coming months.

Bold action

Camille, one of the protesters, said: “People across Europe are rising up to demand that our money will no longer be going to support the expansion of fossil fuel projects around the world. Communities are already feeling the impacts of climate breakdown.

“We need to change course – and fast – but despite this, money keeps flowing to new and existing fossil fuel projects.

“Young people across more than 165 countries are striking in numbers we have never seen before to demand bold action to keep fossil fuels in the ground and stop climate breakdown.

“We all need to take action that is commensurate to the threat. That means going after the fossil fuel industry, and its political and financial backers”.

This Author

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release from 350.org.

Image: Forge Mind Archimedia, Flickr. 

The lung development of children could be stunted by the release of micro-plastics from car tyres, according to an investigation.

Toxic particles emitted from all vehicles including exhaust fumes, metallised rubber and brake dust, are contributing to poor air quality in cities, a study for Channel 4’s Dispatches discovered.

The findings came from an experiment conducted by the programme and scientists from King’s College London (KCL).

Unsafe air

Air pollution is linked to the early deaths of about 40,000 people a year in the UK and causes problems like heart and lung disease and asthma.

Professor Frank Kelly, of KCL, said: “We know that some of the components from brake wear, together with micro-plastics from tyres, will be irritating and causing reactions in the lung, which over time would not be good for our health. We have not known about this issue. This is a new finding.”

One in three children is breathing unsafe air and the modern car tyre is now around 50 percent plastic, according to the programme.

Die

The Dispatches study monitored 50 pupils at Lordship Lane Primary School in Haringey, north London, which found they were exposed to high levels of nitrogen dioxide, an inflammatory pollutant.

Measures including planting hedges around the school, fitting mesh on windows and installing an air-purifier in classrooms led to a drop in nitrogen dioxide exposure by around one-fifth, it said.

Around 9,000 Londoners die prematurely because of polluted air, according to the Mayor’s Office. The Dispatches programme: Britain’s Toxic Air Scandal, airs on Channel 4 at 8pm on Monday.

This Author

Thomas Hornall is a reporter for the Press Association. 

Climate change poses a significant threat to humanity, as a rise in sea levels would lead to an increased incidence and intensity of natural disasters, including floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, storms and drought.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines catastrophic climate change as a temperature increase of 1°C to 3°C above pre-industrial levels.

If the earth’s climate temperature increased by 2°C, subsequent floods would eliminate 280 million people, earthquakes would wipe out 17.6 million and drought/famine would result in 230.8 million fatalities, scientific studies have shown. 

Global heating

According to research conducted by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the climate has warmed at a rate of roughly 0.15-0.20°C per decade since 1975.

The IPCC estimates that global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052, meaning the climate could reach 2°C as soon as 2055 – and that’s if warming takes place in a linear progression.

If the earth’s climate heated up to 44°C, catastrophic floods would wipe out the earth’s population due to melting glaciers causing sea levels to rise. If the world’s climate continues to warm at roughly 0.20°C per decade after hitting 2°C in 2055, this temperature would be reached in 2,136 years from today.

Bangladesh is the most likely location of origin for a catastrophic flood, having had 14 historic incidences of flooding since 2008.

Every so often a new speculation or conspiracy will go viral that claims that the end of the world is near. But how credible are these theories, and what is really the biggest threat to the global population?

Comprehensive guide

How Will the World End reveals how the world could really end by breaking down theoretical but conceivable infectious disease outbreaks, nuclear warfare, climate change induced natural disasters and asteroid impact events. 

The comprehensive guide curates and analyses official reports, historic incidences and pioneering scientific studies to predict the potential location of origin for each event, estimate the likely death toll and calculate the total number of days until the global population is eliminated.

But it’s not just gradual temperature increase that could result in catastrophic climate change. According to Senior Meteorological Consultant Jim N R Dale, an asteroid impact could intensify global warming to a cataclysmic level.

He said: “An asteroid impact that was not immediately catastrophic is likely to increase the likelihood of climate change – more likely towards significant cooling.

“This would be due to the amount of gasses/debris released from the impact and subsequent masking of the sun’s light/heat, rather like history shows r.e. major volcanic activity.”

Catastrophic risk 

Alongside natural disasters, the world faces several other significant threats. These include infectious disease outbreaks, nuclear warfare and asteroid impact.

The 2018 Global Catastrophic Risks report suggests that mass destruction poses a larger threat today than it has for many years.

The comprehensive guide is released in the run up to World Environment Day. Hosted by China, the annual event seeks to encourage worldwide awareness and action for the protection of the environment, with this year’s focus on reducing air pollution.

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from Blue Claw PR. To find out how the world could end, visit the website.