Background Report: Climate Change Adaptation and the Low Carbon Economy in BC
The answer to the sustainability challenge is clear: it is imperative that we significantly reduce our ecological footprint and move to a low-carbon economy.
This report is intended to encourage dialogue amongst citizens and the Government of British Columbia about three major challenges that must be addressed if we are to leave a sustainable world for our children:
- The ENERGY challenge – our heavy reliance on oil will present significant challenges now that the era of cheap and easy oil has passed;
- The CLIMATE CHANGE challenge – the abundance of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, which we have pumped into the atmosphere, are changing our climate and threatening to destabilize the delicate balance that makes life on Earth possible; and
- The ECOSYSTEM challenge – the majority of the ecosystem services that nature provides are not sustainable.
We are currently exceeding the carrying capacity of the Earth and degrading the ecosystems we rely upon for life. We are running a substantial ecological deficit.
