Scientists are worried the earth is sick! Here's why

The report details climate change impacts on human health, air, water, land and biodiversity. Almost all coastal cities and small island nations are increasingly vulnerable to flooding from rising seas and extreme weather.

Earth is sick with multiple and worsening environmental ills killing millions of people yearly, a new UN report says. (Photo | AP) 

Climate change, a global major extinction of animals and plants, a human population soaring toward 10 billion, degraded land, polluted air, and plastics, pesticides and hormone-changing chemicals in the water are making the planet an increasing unhealthy place for people, says the scientific report issued once every few years. (Photo | BP Deepu/EPS)

The sixth Global Environment Outlook, released Wednesday at a UN conference in Nairobi, Kenya, painted a dire picture of a planet where environmental problems interact with each other to make things even more dangerous for people. It uses the word 'risk' 561 times in a 740-page report. (Photo | EPS)

The report concludes 'unsustainable human activities globally have degraded the Earth's ecosystems, endangering the ecological foundations of society.' (Photo | AP)

But it may not be too late. The same document says changes in the way the world eats, buys things, gets its energy and handles its waste could help fix the problems. (Photo | AP)

The scientists said the most important and pressing problems facing humankind are global warming and loss of biodiversity because they are permanent and affect so many people in so many different ways. (Photo | Sunish P Surendran/EPS)

The report details climate change impacts on human health, air, water, land and biodiversity. Almost all coastal cities and small island nations are increasingly vulnerable to flooding from rising seas and extreme weather. (Photo | EPS)