Brazil and the United States have the world’s worst record for absolute environment degradation on a global scale, according to the latest study by researchers led by the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute in Australia.

The study used seven indicators: natural forest loss, habitat conversion (such as turning natural areas into shopping malls), fisheries and other marine captures, use of fertilizer, water pollution, carbon emissions from land use and species threat.

“The environmental crises currently gripping the planet are the corollary of excessive human consumption of natural resources,” said study leader Corey Bradshaw, of the Environment Institute, quoted in a story published by Livescience.com.

“There is considerable and mounting evidence that elevated degradation and loss of habitats and species are compromising ecosystems that sustain the quality of life for billions of people worldwide,” Bradshaw said.

One of those ecosystems is the Chesapeake Bay, the large, shallow and and so far resilient East coast estuary that has developed toxic bloom dead zones and seen once-prevalent species die off after years of pollution abuse and, some say, mismanagement.

Examining what has been done over the past 25 years to save the Bay, and even try to restore it, and how ineffective those actions have been and how successful they will be, are a crucial test of the civic understanding and political commitment to life as we know it.