Last year, Pentagon defense adviser Andrew Marshall issued a harsh warning of the consequences of climate change: mass chaos, national security crises and food shortages. If climate change occurs abruptly, the report declared, there could be a catastrophic breakdown in international security. Wars over access to food, water, and energy would likely break out between states. Even if climate change is more gradual, recent studies have argued that as many as one million plant and animal species could be rendered extinct by 2050 due to the effects of global warming.Climate change is the most serious challenge facing the international community. In order to plan for a sustainable future – one that meets needs today without compromising meeting the needs of future generations – global warming must be addressed. We have arrived at a stage in human evolution that requires international cooperation – a stage which demands that world leaders put world priorities ahead of national political agendas in order to halt the peril threatening humanity.In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) asked all nations to renew their commitment to implement policies based on the three pillars of sustainable development – economic, environmental and social – in order…