“We are all scared. But we must tell the truth about what is happening and challenge people to do something to prevent it” – Paul Ehrlich. (Leahy,2013) The future of our planet has been a major concern for the global community for many years. In their article “Is it possible to avoid the collapse of global civilization?” Paul and Anne Ehrlich explore current ecological and socio-cultural trends that they believe, if left untreated, will lead to inevitable collapse. Unlike civilizations of the past, the modern global community possesses the knowledge, skills, and technologies to solve the many pressing issues that Ehrlich presents in this article. But what are these problems? Since the agricultural revolution, technological developments and advances have allowed industry to attempt to keep pace with the unprecedented exponential growth of the global population. These advances, however, have come at a high cost to the environment that supports them. Fossil fuels, despite being essential for several sectors of the agricultural industry, produce an excess of carbon dioxide; Rising sea levels are affecting irrigation systems and aquatic ecosystems, and global warming is affecting the stable climate needed to grow crops. The mass extinction of plant and animal species is leading to the loss of biodiversity and agricultural land is being lost due to rapid urbanisation. (Ehrlich, 2013) With a projected increase in global average temperature of 2.4°C (Schellnhuber, 2008), Ehrlich (2013) suggests that global efforts need to be undertaken to curb the effects, including a large reduction in fossil fuel emissions , undertaking much more research into sustainable agriculture and adopting the already known environmentally friendly methods, despite political and economic concerns. ...... half of the document ...... the future. References Ehrlich, P., & Ehrlich, A. (2013). Is it possible to avoid the collapse of global civilization? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1754), p.20122845.Leahy, S. (2013). Experts fear collapse of global civilization - Inter Press Service. [online] Inter Press Service. Available at: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/01/experts-fear-collapse-of-global-civilisation/ [Accessed 3 May. 2014].Schellnhuber, H. (2008). Global Warming: Stop Worrying, Start Panic? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(38), pp.14239--14240.World Wildlife Fund, (2012). Living Planet Report 2012. Costanza, R., d'Arge, R., De Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., O' Neill, R., Paruelo, J. and others, (1998). The value of ecosystem services and global natural capital. Ecological Economics, 25(1), pp.3--15.