2022’s Most Serious Environmental Issues

While many factors contribute to the environmental deterioration caused by the climate crisis, some deserve more attention than others. Here are some of the most pressing environmental issues of our time, ranging from biodiversity loss and deforestation to food waste and fast fashion.

Global Warming Caused by Fossil Fuels

Carbon dioxide PPM (parts per million) is 418 at the date of publication, and the world temperature increase is 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Co2 levels on our world would be as intense as they are now more than 4 million years ago. Increased greenhouse gas emissions have resulted in a rapid and steady rise in global temperatures, which is affecting catastrophic events throughout the world, including one of the most disastrous forest fire seasons ever documented in Australia and the United States, locusts swarming across parts of Africa, a heatwave in Antarctica, decimating crops, the Asia, and the Middle East  that saw temperatures rise above 20 degrees for the first time.

Ineffective Governance

The climate crisis, according to economists such as Nicholas Stern, is the result of multiple market failures.

For decades, economic experts as well as environmentalists have encouraged policymakers to increase the cost of operations that produce greenhouse gases (one of our most serious environmental problems), the absence of which represents the most significant business failure, for example through carbon taxes, which will stimulate innovation in low-carbon technology solutions.