Birth control vital to fight global disaster HUMANITY faces a growing complex of serious, highly interconnected environmental problems, including much-discussed challenges such as climate change, as well as the equally or more serious threat to the survival of organisms that support our lives by providing critical ecosystem services such as crop pollination and agricultural pest control. We face numerous other threats as well: the spread of toxic synthetic chemicals worldwide, vast epidemics and a dramatic decline in the quality and accessibility of mineral resources, water and soils.