The human population grows by hundreds of millions per decade. Nuclear, biological, and conventional weapons proliferate, while control over existing stockpiles declines in the former Soviet Bloc. The loss of biodiversity accelerates. Huge amounts of topsoil are eroded. Streams and estuaries are clogged, degrading, even eradicating, once abundant life.
World fisheries decline, even collapse.
Coral reefs are dying. Carbon-dioxide emissions soar, further destabilizing world climate. Deforestation is widespread. Prime farmland is paved. Vast fires rage seasonally in many of the world's tropical forests.