The decades ahead will present many challenges to humanity. We'll need to find new sources of energy to power our lives without choking our air. We'll need to learn to recycle and reuse on a scale not yet imagined, and to balance the convenience of consumption with the wisdom of conservation. Perhaps most importantly, we'll need to develop ways of doing much, much more with our planet's limited supply of fresh water. We'll need to do all of this with a changing climate and a growing population—and with the one very limited planet we've had all along.

via EarthPulse 2010 – Essay: Straining Our Resources – National Geographic.