The living world (§2).

- Birds. Rosenberg et al., "Decline of the North American avifauna," Science (2019): ~2.9 billion fewer breeding birds (~29%) since 1970. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962). - Bees. Project Apis m. / American Beekeeping Federation / Honey Bee Health Coalition (2025): ~62% average commercial colony loss and ~1.6 million colonies lost, June 2024–March 2025 — the worst on record. ≈ $17 billion in US agricultural value; pollinators reproduce >75% of flowering plants and ~35% of crops; neonicotinoid–Varroa synergy (Beyond Pesticides, 2025). - Insects. Hallmann et al., PLOS ONE (2017) — the Krefeld study: >75% decline in flying-insect biomass over 27 years in protected areas. - Soil. The "60 harvests" figure (2014 FAO remark) has no rigorous basis as a single global number (Ritchie / Our World in Data; James Wong, New Scientist); real, uneven degradation persists. - Farmers. ~300,000 farmer suicides in India over ~two decades (NCRB). Causation contested: Shiva/Navdanya vs. Gruère, Qaim et al. - Water. UNESCO / UN-Water, World Water Development Report 2024. Foreign farmland-and-water acquisition in Africa is real but the China-specific scale is overstated (Deborah Brautigam; Land Matrix's downward revisions). - Diet. T. Colin Campbell, The China Study (2005), and its critics: direction sound, strongest claim overstated. - Chemistry, plastics & EMF. IARC (WHO) 2015 on glyphosate (Group 2A) vs. EFSA/EPA/ECHA/JMPR. Microplastics in every placenta and testicle tested (Campen / UNM, Toxicological Sciences, 2024) and accumulating in the brain — ~a spoon's worth, up ~50% in eight years (Nature Medicine, 2025). RF-EMF: IARC Group 2B ("possibly"); harm at ordinary exposures not established — a genuine but unsettled concern.