With regard to global warming, a large volume of fossil fuels such as oil and coal has been consumed since the Industrial Revolution. The emissions of carbon dioxide, which is the primary cause of global warming, has increased by about 12 times over the last 100 years and the density of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 30% compared to that before the Industrial Revolution. As a result, the surface air temperature has increased by $ 0.6 \pm 0.2^{\circ} $ C globally and by $ 1.0^{\circ} $ C in Japan. IPCC (Inter-government Panel on Climate Changes) predicts that the average temperature of the ground surface will increase by $ 1.4^{\circ} $ C to $ 5.8^{\circ} $ C and the sea level will rise by 9cm to 88cm by the end of the 21st Century.

The decrease and the deterioration of forests are becoming problems due to bush fires and illegal deforestation in addition to untraditional slash-and-burn methods and inappropriate commercial deforestation. During the period from 1990 to 2000, the forest area on the global scale decreased by 94,000,000 ha. Each year, 14,200,000 ha of natural forests, which is equivalent to about the two thirds of Honshu in Japan, is disappearing from the tropical zone. Excessive grazing and excessive logging for making of firewood and charcoal are causing desertification and about 3,600 million ha of the land area, which is equivalent to about one fourth of the total land area of the Earth, is subject to desertification. The amount of yield from crops that are collected from the natural environment through agriculture has increased by about 2.7 times during the period from 1950 to 1995.

For diversification of organisms also, there are currently 5,435 types of animals and 5,611 types of plants that are exposed to the danger of extinction.

The impact on the natural environment is also caused by discharge of unnecessary materials. Urban wastes in the major countries in the world are increasing and in terms of the material balance in Japan, only about 10% of the total amount of wastes is recycled. Each household uses 130kg of resources per day, of which about 50kg are discharged as unnecessary materials.

With regard to resources, during the period from 1950 to 1995, the production of oil has increased by about 6.3 times and the production of iron and steal have increased by about 6.5 times. The acid rain that is caused by sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides that are discharged into the atmosphere as a result of burning of oil and coal causes serious damage such as acidification of lakes and swamps and degradation of forests.

Condition of species that may become extinct (Endangered animal species, 2000)

Species Condition	Mammal	Fowls	Reptiles	Amphibia	Others	Total
Extinct	83	128	21	5	456	693
Extinct in the wild	4	3	1	0	25	33
Threatened	1,130	1,183	296	146	2,680	5,435
Endangered I	520	503	135	63	1,057	2,278
Endangered II (Vulnerable)	610	680	161	83	1,623	3,157
Near threatened	676	730	77	27	504	2,014

(Endangered plant species, 2000)

Species Condition	Total number (species)
Extinct	73
Extinct in the wild	17
Threatened	5,611
Endangered I	2,280
Endangered II (Vulnerable)	3,331
Near threatened	951

Note: Extinct in the Wild refers to the condition where the species exist under breeding or

Source: "The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species" IUCN

Transition of amount of wastes discharged from metropolitan areas

Note: Based on the value in 1980 as 1.

Presentation: Prepared by Ministry of the Environment based on "Environmental Data 1995," "Environmental Data 1997," OECD

World mineral production

Note: Based on the value in 1950 as 1

Presentation: Created by the Ministry of the Environment based on the "Energy Production, Supply and Demand Statistics Yearbook" and "Annual resource statistics report" by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry