Transient Caretakers

The Sustainability Crisis

Each generation becomes caretakers of the earth’s future. This essential moral stewardship includes a heavy responsibility to pass down a sustainable – that is, habitable – planet. Today’s generation faces this challenge with the knowledge that the earth will be far less welcoming in the future unless current environmental trends radically change. The primary issue is global warming, a manmade problem caused by excessive carbon emissions. It threatens horrific consequences.

All respected scientific indices clearly prove that global warming is real. The evidence is everywhere. Temperatures today average 1.5°C (2.7°F) warmer than in the past, and projections are that this will increase significantly. Unless the world’s nations take substantial action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, average temperatures could rise up to 6.4° C (11.5° F) during the 21st century. Is this an ordinary aberration? No. To visit an earth two or three degrees Centigrade warmer, you’d have to go back three million years.

Among other serious problems, global warming is melting the great ice regions and glaciers. Scientists believe the Arctic Ocean will have no...