

The added stresses to human health, wealth, and well-being will perversely diminish our political capacity to mitigate the erosion of ecosystem services on which society depends. We especially draw attention to the lack of appreciation of the enormous challenges to creating a sustainable future. Third, this dire situation places an extraordinary responsibility on scientists to speak out candidly and accurately when engaging with government, business, and the public. Second, we ask what political or economic system, or leadership, is prepared to handle the predicted disasters, or even capable of such action. The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms-including humanity-is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts. First, we review the evidence that future environmental conditions will be far more dangerous than currently believed. We report three major and confronting environmental issues that have received little attention and require urgent action.

14La Kretz Hall, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.13Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.12Global Footprint Network, Oakland, CA, United States.

