At their core, the problems we face today are no different from those our ancestors faced: how to find a balance between what we take from the biosphere and what we leave behind for our descendants. But while our distant ancestors were incapable of affecting the Earth System as a whole, we are not only able to do that, we are doing it. Humanity now faces a choice: we can continue down a path where our demands on Nature far exceed Nature’s capacity to supply them on a sustainable basis; or we can take a different path, one where our engagements with Nature are not only sustainable but also enhance our collective well-being and the well-being of our descendants.

To pursue a sustainable future will require a transformative change in our mode of thinking and acting.