Our natural world is facing oh-so-many crises, all of which are driven by we humans as we extract what we need from the environment and chuck away our waste.
Here's a starting list (Hat-Tip to Clive Spash who lists these in this lecture Social ecological crises and transformation of the economy 
at 32:40 - well worth watching the whole lecture on how economics ignores material inputs):
- soil erosion - topsoil leaching into rivers because industrial agriculture refuses to build soil structure
- deforestation - destruction of carbon absorbing forests for timber, agricultural and urban land
- water salinisation - salty runoff contaminating freshwater ecosystems, which can harm aquatic species
- pesticides - virulent chemicals which harm more species than those they're intending to kill
- nuclear fallout & radiation - the radioactive products created when a nuclear weapon explodes
- particulates in the air - small particles from both natural & industrial processes and use of vehicles, which cause health problems including heart disease for many creatures as well as humans
- tropospheric (or ground-level) ozone pollution - created by chemical reactions between NOx gases (oxides of nitrogen produced by combustion) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
- stratospheric ozone loss - a steady lowering of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone (the ozone layer) around Earth's polar regions
- acidic deposition aka acid rain - Acid rain is caused by emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids
- toxic chemical waste - the output from many of our industrial processes (what economists call externalities!)
- heavy metals - Chromium, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and lead have the greatest potential to cause harm on account of their extensive use
- asbestos poisoning - Asbestosis is caused by breathing in asbestos fibres
- nuclear waste - hazardous waste & byproducts of nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons
- ocean acidification - additional CO2 in the ocean results in a wholesale shift in seawater chemistry toward more acidic, lower pH conditions
- hormone discharge into the water supply - can cause numerous adverse human health outcomes, including alterations in sperm quality and fertility; abnormalities in sex organs‚ endometriosis‚ early puberty‚ altered nervous system or immune function; certain cancers; respiratory problems; metabolic issues; diabetes, obesity, or cardiovascular problems; growth, neurological and learning disabilities, and more
- micro plastics in the food chain - Since one animal eats another, microplastics can move through the food chain
- carbon dioxide pollution - Carbon dioxide concentrations are rising mostly because of the fossil fuels that people are burning for energy
all leading to
- biodiversity loss
- climate change
<b>The extremely concerning rises in global average temperatures</b>
We've all been shocked by this graphic, showing a substantial jump in this graph at 6th July 2023. The grey lines show daily average global temperature since 1979, while the blue shows the year 2022 - itself setting records, and the red shows 2023 with several more record. Just look at the size of the red jump in July!
Average daily global air temperatures throughout the year since 1979
In an article titled Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points ] in the periodical Science we read "Observations have revealed that parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet may have already passed a tipping point".
When a tipping point is reached, the forces holding the system in its current state of equilibrium are overcome by the forces bringing about change. And we see a rapid change to a different state.
This is extremely concerning because once one of these state changes happens, this could then trigger others to happen too. Here's a concise graphic from Carbon Brief, showing nine of those inter-related tipping points.
And here's how climate change affects extreme weather around the world . Many of these crises have affect each other culminating in biodiversity loss and climate change. So, we do indeed have a complex and many-faceted set of inter-related bio-physical crises.
<b>Causal Factors</b>
The human behaviours of population growth, consumption growth and technological advances are major causes of all these crises, and driving those are advertising and the imperative for economic growth.
<b>Knock-on Effects</b>
Biodiversity loss directly affects the resilience of each ecosystem, which ultimately leads to lower wellbeing and lower food yields and quality.
And climate change drives both the food and migration crises, which feed into theeconomic and political crises.