Scotland faces numerous catastrophic impacts from the climate crisis which could leave the country with polluted waters, abandoned villages, dying forests and few remaining birds, the head of the country’s environment agency is to warn.

Outlining the apocalyptic scenario the country could face within the next decade, Francesca Osowska, head of Scottish Natural Heritage, will call for urgent action to tackle the environmental degradation already taking a heavy toll on Scotland.

Some of the biggest impacts include enormous wildfires which burned across swathes of the country in April and May, with one in Moray described as one of the largest wildfires seen in the UK in recent years.

Firefighters said lack of rain meant fires have quickly spread through peat and heather.

The country also faces the twin perils of both lack of water, and heightened risks of flooding, due to less rainfall, but rising sea levels which threaten low-lying coastal regions.

Britain before Brexit: Scotland Show all 11 1 /11 Britain before Brexit: Scotland Britain before Brexit: Scotland Edinburgh A yellow grit box on the Royal Mile, now containing blankets. One set of contents has been replaced by another, but both are used to make the cold weather less dangerous Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: Scotland Glasgow Students hand feed pigeons, taking time out to feed the birds. And like the lady from Mary Poppins, they too seem proud that they’ve paid the animals attention, happily surrounded by their hunger Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: Scotland Aberdeen A colour-coded stereotype on Union Street, complimenting double yellow lines Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: Scotland Glasgow Two images of man across time: one majestic and colossal; the other distracted and unremarkable. Both are burdened, it seems Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: Scotland Dundee A view of the £80m V&A museum, built on the bank of the River Tay. It’s a controversial addition to the city, providing art and culture and tourism, but not social infrastructure Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: Scotland Inverness The facade of a ‘conspiracy shop’, existing not to make money, but to awaken people from the web of lies in which we supposedly live, to shatter the illusion of reality, to tell the truth Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: Scotland Aberdeen An anonymous act of political expression in modern Britain, adding to the mix, becoming part of the everyday experience of waiting for the green light Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: Scotland Edinburgh Edinburgh’s skyline, overgrown by the skeletal branches of a wintry tree, in which a thrown traffic cone sits entangled and trapped Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: Scotland Glasgow American Christians take it in turns to preach on Buchanan Street. They talk of sin and vulgarity and death and power. It’s an intriguing performance, one framed and mocked by the sex-selling adverts behind Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: Scotland Dundee A Polish football hooligan sticker re-frames the view of the city from the Dundee Law, bringing a foreign presence to the frame, a new look created by the movement of people Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain before Brexit: Scotland Edinburgh Vegan protesters write their ethics on the pavement in chalk, trying to catch the eye of head-down city strollers. Their political graffiti washes away in the night rain Richard Morgan/The Independent

Warming temperatures have already changed the timings of spring events such as leaf unfolding, bird migration and egg-laying, as well as fish abundance and spawning locations, according to the Scottish government.

The country is failing to meet its own target to plant more trees with more land being given over to agriculture, while the salmon industry is already dealing with the impact of algal blooms due to climate change and pesticide use, and a surge in oil and gas exploration in the North Sea is expected to soon be under way which will further compound the problem.

“Let me paint you a picture of what we could have in Scotland in 2030,” Ms Osowska will say in her address at the Royal Society of Edinburgh this evening, according to The Times.

“Imagine an apocalypse – polluted waters; drained and eroding peatlands; coastal towns and villages deserted in the wake of rising sea level and coastal erosion; massive areas of forestry afflicted by disease; a dearth of people in rural areas and no birdsong.

“All of this is possible, and there are parts of the world we can point to where inaction has given rise to one or more of these nightmare landscapes.”

Ms Osowska will cite the UN report released earlier this month which paints a devastating picture of the planet’s biodiversity loss, with up to a million species facing extinction in the world’s sixth mass die-off.

She will describe it as “the most significant environmental report ever”, and say it is not too late to act.

She will praise the Scottish government for declaring a “climate emergency” at the end of April, which pledges to cut net carbon emissions to zero by 2045.

Ms Osowska became chief executive of Scottish Natural Heritage in October 2017 and was previously director of the Scotland Office in Westminster, and also served as principal private secretary to Alex Salmond during his tenure as first minister of Scotland.

The Scottish government told The Times: “We agree that there is an urgent need to respond to the global climate emergency, on which Scotland is already demonstrating world-leading ambition.