April 22nd, better known as Earth Day, is a perfect opportunity to bring the environment to the forefront and review some of the key global changes and trends impacting the world. So in honor of Earth Day the EarthTrends team has put together a few interesting statistics from our database.

• In 2005 total world energy consumption had increased by 30% from its 1990 value with high income countries consuming over 11 times more energy per capita than low income nations.
• World life expectancy was between 45 and 50 years of age during the 1950s and is predicted to be around 75 years of age in 2050. The current variations in life expectancy are a signifier of wider poverty issues- for example whilst the life expectancy in Japan is 82.6 years it is less than half this value in Swaziland where the average is only 39.6 years.
• According to the 2008 IUCN Redlist 38% of species are currently at risk of extinction.
• World meat production per capita has increased from 32.24 kg in 1986 to 41.39 kg in 2006. There is a huge disparity in meat production between high and low income nations with richer countries producing 94.14 kg per capita in 2006 whilst poorer countries produced almost 10 times less at 9.21kg.
• The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by 38% between 1744 and 2007, from 276.80 to 383.57 parts per million.
• The number of people employed in agriculture gives a good indication of just how dependent different regions are on natural resources and the environment. In 2004 the agricultural labor force as a percentage of the total labor force was 3.2% in high income countries compared to 58.5% in low income countries. In some places such as Bhutan and Burkina Faso this value was over 90%.