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This report seeks to encourage dialogue about three major challenges that must be addressed if we are to pass on a sustainable world to our children:
The ENERGY challenge – our heavy reliance on oil will present significant challenges now that the era of cheap and easy oil has passed;
The CLIMATE CHANGE challenge – the abundance of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, which we have pumped into the atmosphere, are changing our climate and threatening to destabilize the delicate balance that makes life on Earth possible;
The ECOSYSTEM challenge – the majority of the ecosystem services that nature provides are not currently being used in a sustainable manner.
We are currently exceeding the carrying capacity of the Earth and degrading the ecosystems we rely upon for life. We are running a substantial ecological deficit. (NB: For convenience, we routinely refer to these three challenges collectively as the sustainability challenge throughout this report, with the acknowledgement that sustainability as a concept can include a far more complex set of issues, including social justice).
A report from ACT (Adaptation to Climate Change Team), based at Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of the Environment.