Climate Change Adaptation and the Low Carbon Economy in BC: Background Report

This report, which forms the background to the various ACT “Climate Change Adaptation and the Low Carbon Economy in BC” reports, 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).