"Urgent action at an unprecedented scale is necessary to arrest and reverse this situation," said a note to policymakers accompanying the report.
Without a fundamental retooling of the global economy to more sustainable production lines, the report's authors warn that the very concept of GDP growth could become meaningless against the cost of lost lives, work hours and concomitant treatment expenses.
"If you have a healthy planet it supports not only global GDP but it also supports the lives of the very poorest because they depend on clean air and clean water," Joyeeta Gupta, GEO co-chair, told AFP, adding, "If you turn that around, an unhealthy system has massive damage on human lives."
The report called for a root-and-branch detoxifying of human behaviour, while insisting that the situation is not unassailable.
For instance food waste, which accounts for 9 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, could be slashed. The world currently throws away a third of all food produced. That figure is fuelled by 56 percent of food in richer nations going to waste.
"Everyone is saying that by 2050 we have to feed 10 billion people, but that doesn't mean we have to double production," said Gupta., adding, "If we reduce our waste and perhaps have less meat you could immediately reduce that problem."
At the same time, she acknowledged, "that would require changes in the way we live."
The report also called for a rapid drawdown in greenhouse gas emissions and pesticide use to improve air and water quality.
The GEO draws on hundreds of data sources to calculate the environmental impact on over a 100 diseases.
Its unveiling at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi is likely to add to the debate over who bears the greatest responsibility for the damage already borne by Earth.
Sources close to the negotiations told AFP some developed nations, led by the United States, had threatened not to "welcome" the GEO report, a procedural but nonetheless significant hurdle if nations are to agree on the necessary cuts in waste, overconsumption and pollution.
Gupta said that nations, however big or small, would all have to adapt to the environmental reality facing every human on the planet. "If you look at land, it's fixed," she said. "If the population is going to go up we have to redistribute, one way or the other. If you look at freshwater, it's more or less fixed. You have to end up sharing. This is a discourse that many developed countries don't like."