Recognizing challenges

The next fifty years are a special time. They will decide how strong and healthy the planet will be for centuries to come. Between now and 2050 will see the zenith, or very nearly, of human population. With luck, and concerted application, we will never see any greater production of carbon dioxide or toxic chemicals. We will never see more species extinction or soil erosion. So it is the task of those of us alive right now to deal with this special phase, to squeeze us through these next fifty years. That's not fair -- any more than it was fair that earlier generations had to deal with the Second World War or the Depression or slavery. It's just reality. We need in these fifty years to be working simultaneously on all parts of the equation -- on our ways of life, on our technologies, and on our population numbers. If the planet does manage to reduce its fertility and overconsumption, the period in which human numbers threaten the biosphere on a general scale will turn out to have been much, much more brief than periods of natural threats like the Ice Ages. True enough. But the period in question happens to be our time. That's what makes this moment special, and what makes this moment hard.