The twentieth century is the bloodiest in human history with 260 million dead in war, armed conflicts, and genocide. The principal victims have been civilians slaughtered in lawless savagery, both random and planned. Many countries, including powerful industrialized countries, have committed crimes against humanity. In addition, countries have developed weapons that kill mostly civilians, including land mines. Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons of mass destruction threaten irreparable damage to human civilization and Earth's ecosystems.
Poverty is another form of violence.
Forty million people die each year in developing countries, and nearly half of these deaths are from preventable infectious diseases or illnesses. A pregnancy is about 16 times more likely to kill in a developing country than in an industrialized country. The biosphere and the very foundations of life are being exploited ruthlessly . Six billion humans and their economic efforts to meet their needs and wants now dominate Earth. Eighty percent of the planet's original forests have been cleared, fragmented, or otherwise degraded.