In the long history of the planet there have been innumerable catastrophic events. Some of these events even created mass extinctions, like what happened to the dinosaurs. We are now faced with some serious environmental challenges, but what is unique about our current problems is that one species, humans, is responsible. Geologists have coined our current time the Anthropocene – a time when humans have dramatically impacted the earth’s resources and ecosystems. Of course, this also implies that humans should have the knowledge and skills to work on addressing the issues. This talk will give an overview of our current environmental challenges. We will discuss the specific causes of each problem, the interconnectedness of many of the problems and the risks they pose for the future. Specifically, we will discuss the causes and impacts of climate change, the modern agricultural system, biodiversity loss, imbalance in the nitrogen cycle and pollution. Pollution is a large category, but we will review fertilizer pollution, toxic chemicals and plastics. Virtually all environmental issues can be improved by employing approaches that focus on the health of our soils, plants and people. However, before the solutions we need to first understand what the environmental challenges are.