Measuring the impact of ecological threats.
The map in Figure 1.1 highlights the severity of ecological threats faced by 3,125 subnational areas, with areas in red having an overall ETR score higher than 3.8 out of 5, indicating a very high level of threat. Of these subnational areas, 13.7 per cent face a very high overall level of ecological threat. These areas are home to an estimated 926 million people, or 13 per cent of the global population. By 2050, this figure is projected to rise to 1.4 billion people. There is considerable variation in levels of ecological threat both within and across regions. Europe and North America are the only two continents where no subnational areas face a high or very high level of ecological threat. Even in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest overall average threat level, there are some subnational areas facing only a medium level of threat. While not all of the people in these areas will suffer from the direct impacts of adverse ecological conditions, the indirect impacts will be w...