Conclusion and Outlook

Abstract

The challenges we face in environmental degradation, climate change, and resource exhaustion are monumental, existential and collective. They are hard because they are emerging on an unprecedented scale, occur slowly and fitfully, and cannot be addressed by any one answer. In other words, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution — each society’s response must emerge from and be tailored to fit its unique historical, cultural and political context. At the same time no single nation, no matter how bold and far reaching its response, can envision and build the sustainable societies of the future on its own. It will take international cooperation and coordination, free of the trappings of self-centered diplomacy and the tendencies to let others bear the burden of change while doing nothing, to ensure the sustainability of our natural resources and ecosystems for the generations to come.