Earth's "very survival is in doubt” if mankind continues to damage the planet, the United Nations (UN) has warned in a report that suggests previously “inconceivable” threats to human existence will rear their heads more often and less predictably than ever.

Extreme planetary change and increasingly complex, growing and related risks, from global warming to pollution and epidemics will put human life at risk, the body said in a new report.

“Change is happening more quickly and surprisingly across multiple dimensions and scales than we ever thought possible,” it warned in its latest findings on reducing risks from natural disasters. "This means that although modelling and metrics are important, we can no longer use the past as a reliable indicator of the future. Threats that were once considered inconceivable, no longer are.”

A range of major threats to human life and property, including air pollution, diseases, earthquakes, drought and climate change were identified in the report, launched at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva.

There is also growing potential for one type of disaster to produce or exacerbate another, such as when heavy rains trigger mudslides after wildfires, it warned.

Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Show all 25 1 /25 Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Masked Butterflyfish (Chaetodon semilarvatus) swimming over a bommie reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve of Ras Mohamed, off the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Rising sea temperatures cause corals to bleach (go white) and die Getty/iStock Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A giant clam is seen nestled among coral reefs at the Obhor coast, 30 kms north of the Red Sea city of Jeddah AFP/Gett Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral reef in seychelles that has degraded After the reef has died they break up and become rubble. On this reef there is some regrowth of young corals so there is hope for recovery Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A rabbitfish in a net H Goehlich Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A school of fish and a sea can in a healthy coral reef off the coast of Isla Mujeres, Mexico Getty/Lumix Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Sky views of great barrier reef in Australia Getty/iStock Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A fish swims among coral reefs at the Obhor coast AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Researchers from the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in the southern Israeli resort city Eilat monitor coral growth while scuba diving in the Red Sea AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A rope nursery Nature Seychelles Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Fish swimming off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada. The rebounding tourism sector is worrisome for the fragile marine ecosystem AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A parrotfish on the reef C Reveret Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Gorgonian sea fan on a a coral reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve of Ras Mohamed AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A diver swims during a Great Barrier Reef experience on Lady Elliot Island, Australia Getty/Tourism Queensland Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Jessica Bellsworthy, a PhD student conducting research on the coral reefs of the Gulf of Eilat, holds a coral in an aquarium at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral reefs in the water off the Obhor coast, 30 kms north of the Red Sea city of Jeddah in 2008 AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A diver photographs golden anthias (Pseudanthias aurulentus) on a coral reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve of Ras Mohamed AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage FUNAFUTI, TUVALU - AUGUST 15: From the air the ocean (L) and the logoon (R) and separated by a thin stip of land on August 15, 2018 in Funafuti, Tuvalu. The small South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is striving to mitigate the effects of climate change. Rising sea levels of 5mm per year since 1993, well above the global average, are damaging vital crops and causing flooding in the low lying nation at high tides. Sea water rises through the coral atoll on the mainland of Funafuti and inundates taro plantations, floods either side of the airport runway and affects peoples homes. The nation of 8 inhabited islands with an average elevation of only 2m above sea level is focusing on projects to help it and its people have a future. Four of the outer islands are 97% solar energy dependent and the Tuvalu Government is working to achieve 100% renewable energy from wind and solar by 2025. Tuvalu's 11,000 inhabitants see the effects of climate change in their daily life. (Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images for Lumix) Fiona Goodall Getty/Lumix Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A photo taken on April 4, 2019 shows fish swimming off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada. - In dazzling turquoise waters off Egypt's Red Sea coast, scuba divers swim among delicate pink jellyfish and admire coral -- but the rebounding tourism sector is worrisome for the fragile marine ecosystem. (Photo by Mohamed el-Shahed / AFP) (Photo credit should read MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images) MOHAMED EL-SHAHED AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A damselfish Sarah Frias-Torres Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Divers swim past a coral reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A puffer fish hovering above coral in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Researchers from the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in the southern Israeli resort city Eilat monitor coral growth while scuba diving on June 12, 2017 in the Red Sea off Eilat. Global warming has in recent years caused colourful coral reefs to bleach and die around the world -- but not in the Gulf of Eilat, or Aqaba, part of the northern Red Sea. At the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in southern Israeli resort city Eilat, dozens of aquariums have been lined up in rows just off the Red Sea shore containing samples of local corals AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage This photo taken on April 21, 2017 shows an aerial shot of part of mischief reef in the disputed Spratly islands on April 21, 2017. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana flew to a disputed South China Sea island on April 21, brushing off a challenge by the Chinese military while asserting Manila's territorial claim to the strategic region. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE (Photo credit should read TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images) TED ALJIBE AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage fish swimming off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada AFP/Getty

“If we continue living in this way, engaging with each other and the planet in the way we do, then our very survival is in doubt,” said Mami Mizutori, special representative of the UN secretary-general for disaster risk reduction.

Extreme weather events have doubled over the last 20 years, causing economic losses that are making it “an uphill battle” to maintain development gains in low and middle-income countries, she added in a statement.

Meanwhile, the ability of both rich and poor to withstand wild weather and other threats is being hurt by poorly planned urbanisation, environmental degradation and population growth.

That “complex cocktail of risk” is destroying homes and displacing people, or pushing them to migrate in search of a better life, Ms Mizutori said.

Pprevention is better than cure, she added, although she warned that international development funding for disaster relief was 20 times greater than for “preparedness”.

A report released last week by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) showed 1,600 disasters were recorded in 2018, ranging from monsoon floods in India to wildfires in the United States.

The disasters displaced 17.2 million people, some in short-term evacuations, it said.

Since the IDMC began collecting the data in 2008, about 265 million people have been uprooted by disasters, more than three times as many as those forced from their homes by conflicts and violence, it said.