ABSTRACT
Resolving the carbon crisis and creating a world that is sustainable for more than nine billion people will require an overall reduction in total consumption and production. The Global Footprint Network estimates that the carbon footprint makes up 50 percent of humanity's overall ecological footprint and, notably, is the most rapidly growing and uncertain component. The intra-generational regional equity issue has at least three dimensions. One involves the ethics of differential impacts. The second dimension of regional equity is the political feasibility of enforcing differential development. The third dimension of regional equity is the "security" aspects of environmental degradation. Agriculture, tropical forests, and fish probably face the greatest threats from the carbon crisis. The quintessence of the principle of conservation of options is in the carbon crisis context: all members of the current generation as well as future generations should be able to have the same options based on utilizing fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases.
