Fighting Insectageddon: Why Bugs Matter

Antarctica, one of the most remote and desolate locations on Earth also functions as one of the world's main cooling systems. However, after decades of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, parts of the continent are now warming faster than anywhere else on the planet. 

Over the years, climate change has led to increased erosion of the continent, altered ocean currents and affected wildlife. Warmer currents are now flowing further south, towards the icy terrain, contributing to glacial melt, rising sea levels and drastically changing habitats.

In a busy market in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, a group of women gather to cook. While the dishes they prepare are traditional, the brightly coloured stoves they cook on are new.

The locally made Ugastove, which requires on average half the amount of charcoal of traditional cookers, saves money in reduced fuel costs, cuts carbon emissions and reduces deforestation.

Three-quarters of all land on Earth is now significantly affected by human activity and the few remaining pockets of wilderness are themselves at risk of becoming ecological deserts. Agriculture, industry, urbanization, climate change — all these are decimating ecosystems and destroying biodiversity. Some 60 percent of the world's animals have been wiped out since the 1970s.

Green Goodbyes 

Death is a messy business. In America alone, 1.6 million tons of cement and over 870,000 gallons of embalming fluid — commonly containing formaldehyde — are buried along with 2.5 million caskets every year.

“What you have here is a landfill … a toxic landfill,” says Glen Ayers of the Green Burial Committee as he looks around a traditional graveyard in Massachusetts.

With global demand for food set to increase by nearly 70% by 2050, sustainable food production is one of the biggest challenges for the future. The food industry is one of the most ecologically damaging industries and we will need to completely rethink its approach if we are to keep meals on the table for generations to come.

Estimates say that by 2030, if we carry on as we are, the world will have only 60 percent of the water it needs. In India's Ladakh, rising temperatures are leading to glacial melt and water shortages in the mountains of the Himalayas. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is also struggling as it experiences severe drought.  

"earthrise" investigates the local solutions being developed in Ladakh and Jordan to help ease the increasingly worrying water problems. 

To cope with our growing population we have tripled our exploitation of natural resources in just 40 years. As a result of the vast expansion of mining, industrial-scale farming, fishing and other human activities, natural ecosystems have lost nearly half of their area, and one million plant and animal species are facing extinction. Without the ecological networks which regulate our planet — from cleaning air and water to providing food — we simply cannot survive.

Half the world's population live in cities, and by 2050 the figure will increase to two-thirds, or about 6 billion people. The environmental impact is already extensive. As the global population expands, so too do pollution and pressure on resources.