The triple planetary crisis refers to the three main interlinked issues that humanity currently faces: climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.

Climate change is the most alarming issue facing humanity today. Climate change is long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns that in the long run will completely endanger the ecosystems and  life on the planet. Mainly,  human activities contribute to climate change. Almost everything we do releases emissions, but energy use, industry, transport, buildings and agriculture are the main causes for release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The imapct of climate change is visible through increased intensity and severity of  droughts, water scarcity, wildfires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity.

Air Pollution is the largest cause of disease and premature death in the world, Pollution is caused by everything from traffic and factories to wildfires, volcanoes and mould. Another cause of pollution is indoor household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels and technologies which caused an estimated 3.8 million deaths in 2016 alone(Source).

Biodiversity loss is  decline or disappearance of biological diversity, which includes animals, plants and ecosystems. The reasons for biodiversity loss include everything from overfishing to habitat loss (e.g. deforestation to make way for development) to desertification due to climate change. Biodiversity is the baseline for everything on the planet – as in the end we are all interlinked. Biodiversity loss impacts food supplies and access to clean water – without it we have no future on our planet(source).