The Situation

There exist today myriad environmental groups that seek to protect an extraordinary array of environmental interests, from mammals to minerals to marigolds. The need for such institutions is indisputable; humans are usurping the planet's resources and causing global climate change at a startling rate.

Globally, every 24 hours, we consume and release the same amount of energy that the earth needed 27 years to store; every year, we lose 25 billion tons of fertile topsoil and somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 species. Humankind is harvesting the earth's resources at a pace which greatly outstrips the pace needed for these resources to regenerate. Global warming threatens to raise sea levels and displace millions of people within the next century. Modern society is grossly overexploiting the world's natural resources and could soon cause an international disaster. The recent UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment concluded that we have polluted or overexploited two-thirds of the ecosystems on which life depends to the point that the ability of these ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.

Even for its staunchest defenders, it is becoming difficult to support the widespread view that resources are infinite and that it is appropriate to live singularly within the goal of personal, immediate gain. Whether swayed by moral arguments or pressing necessity, each citizen of humanity is currently faced with the reality that we have inherited a world in which we have no choice but to consider both the environmental and social components of our personal and professional decisions. Envirolution seeks to make people aware of how our lives are implicated in this reality and how we can prepare for a sustainable future in a carbon-constrained, climate-conscious world. We see an impressive Green Wave taking hold, and Envirolution serves to empower youth to become leaders of a new, mainstream, and diverse sustainability movement.