ABSTRACT
The coming decades will see the most pressing and widespread imperative for change that our species has ever experienced. Since the early times, much of our history has been a story of survival – a story that tells of a vulnerable but clever species that rose to the top of its planet's food chain, and achieved, for some, staggering levels of affluence and luxury – a story however that is already taking a turn for the worse, and may again call for us to fight for our very own survival. The awful consequence of the rapid industrialization of much of the world is that it has relied on significant levels of pollution, environmental damage and resource consumption, the impact of which is now rivalling the planet's ability to accommodate it. The next chapter of civilization's history will be dictated by the manner in which we respond to the realization that as a global community we need to significantly and rapidly reduce our pressure on the environment, and in particular our generation of greenhouse gas emissions – a challenge made particularly difficult by the 2008 global financial crisis.
