Section
Environmental Monitoring
Watching the living planet · updated July 2026
Indicators of the health of ecosystems and the human environment — air, forests, wildlife and fresh water — largely observed from space.
~99%
Breathe polluted air
6.7 Mha
Forest lost (2024)
−73%
Wildlife since 1970
~4 bn
Face water scarcity
What this section covers
Monitoring covers the living and human environment: the air we breathe, the forests that store carbon, the diversity of life, and the fresh water we depend on.
Much of this is now observed by satellites, giving near-real-time views of forests, air quality and water.
These indicators translate the physical climate signal into impacts on nature and people.