NOTES:
Each item in the list is a hyperlink that will take you directly to the web page where the information was taken. This list was written in June 2019.
The column on the right is a list of the incredible metrics and dashboards put together in recent years in order to track different aspects of our complex world.

Planet Earth, Climate Change and Biodiversity

• Global mean sea level could rise up to 2 meters by 2100.
• Eight of the world’s ten largest cities are near the coast.
• The country of Ecuador has already lost 10% of its land between 1961 and 2014.
• In 2019, carbon emissions have reached 415ppm. In 1960, we were emitting 315ppm worldwide.
• Ocean dead zones with zero oxygen have quadrupled in size since 1950.
• 1 to 2 acres of rainforest are cleared every second. From 2001 to 2017, there was a total of 337Mha of tree cover loss globally, equivalent to a 8.4% decrease in tree cover since 2000 and 24.7Gt of CO₂ emissions.
• Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970. Today, in 2019, one million species are at risk of extinction.
• As many as 2.7 trillion animals are pulled from the ocean each year. We could see fishless oceans by 2048.
• Human Civilization could crumble by 2050 if we don’t stop climate change now

Demography

• By 2030, the population will exceed 8 billion. In 2040, this number will grow to more than 9 billion. In 2055, the number will rise to over 10 billion.
• The global average fertility rate is just below 2.5 children per woman today. Over the last 50 years, the global fertility rate has halved. And over the course of the modernization of societies, the number of children per woman decreases very substantially. In the pre-modern era, fertility rates of 4.5 to 7 children per woman were common.

Water, Agriculture and Food

• One-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted. Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes)
• To feed a growing population, food production will need to increase by 70% by 2050
• Over the past 40 years, over 30% of arable land globally has been degraded
• Water withdrawals for irrigation are nearly 70% of the total withdrawn for human uses worldwide.
• In the US, agriculture is responsible for 80-90% of water consumption.
• 21 of the largest 37 aquifers in the world have exceeded sustainability tipping points and are being depleted.
• 2 billion people rely on water supplied from underground aquifers as their main source of freshwater.
• Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
• Livestock takes up nearly 80% of global agricultural land and one-third of the Earth’s Ice-free land.

Physical and mental health

• Close to 800 000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds.
• 11% of Americans over the age of 12 take an antidepressant, 9% of Australians, 5% of French and Germans.
• In 2000, the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) reported that the prevalence of Autism had reached 1 in 150 children. In 2013, the US National Health Statistics Report indicated that 1 in 50 children across the US were diagnosed with Autism. In populated US cities this is already 1 in 27 children.
• There were 17 million new cases of cancer worldwide in 2018. There will be 27.5 million new cases of cancer each year by 2040.

Democracy

• Since 2006, 113 countries have seen a decline in their democracy scores
• 40% of populist leaders are also indicted on corruption charges

Inequality

• The richest 1% now owns half the world’s wealth

War and Peace

• From 1776 to 2015, U.S. has been at war 222 out of 239 years, France 185 years.
• In 2016 the world’s 100 largest arms manufacturers sold $374.8 bn of weapons and military services.
• In one year, U.S. military spending costs about $990 billion.
• Just 10 percent of world military spending could knock off poverty.

References

https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-largest-antidepressant-drug-users-2016-2/?r=AU&IR=T

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-military-goals/just-10-percent-of-world-military-spending-could-knock-off-poverty-think-tank-idUSKCN0X12EQ

https://www.livescience.com/65633-climate-change-dooms-humans-by-2050.html

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2205741-is-it-true-climate-change-will-cause-the-end-of-civilisation-by-2050/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/30/humanity-wiped-out-animals-since-1970-major-report-finds

https://www.globalresearch.ca/america-has-been-at-war-93-of-the-time-222-out-of-239-years-since-1776/5565946

https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-military-budget-components-challenges-growth-3306320

https://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/14/richest-1-percent-now-own-half-the-worlds-wealth.html

http://www.autism-adhd.org.au/autism_prevalence

https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/cpi_2018_global_analysis

http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/

https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/2018-epi-report/agriculture

https://www.unodc.org

http://www.worldwatercouncil.org

http://worldpopulationreview.com/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2006/11/seafood-biodiversity/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/05/ipbes-un-biodiversity-report-warns-one-million-species-at-risk/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2018/jun/27/one-football-pitch-of-forest-lost-every-second-in-2017-data-reveals

https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/fs_arms_industry_2016.pdf

https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics/global.html

http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/expert_paper/How_to_Feed_the_World_in_2050.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/02/arable-land-soil-food-security-shortage

https://www.globalagriculture.org/fileadmin/files/weltagrarbericht/Weltagrarbericht/04Fleisch/WaitroseReport.pdf