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The earth's climate is warming. This warming is largely the result of human activities including the use of fossil fuels and large scale changes in land use. Large-scale changes in resource consumption are required. Even if all these changes were made immediately, some change is unavoidable.
Effects of warming include:
The global weather system is large and complex and so it is difficult to make long-term predictions about its behaviour with certainty. This uncertainty has been exploited by groups worried about the economic consequences of greenhouse gas emission reductions. But even the most optimistic scenarios aren't looking too good and uncertainty cuts both ways - wishful thinking won't prevent the worst-case scenarios.
Not all the news is bad, though. Moving to more efficient and clean technologies will provide benefits. Less spending on energy means that consumers will be able to buy other goods and services. Development of new technologies will create jobs and new opportunities. Reduced dependence on fossil fuels will allow sustainable economic growth in all sectors. Improved human health and cleaner air also have economic benefits.
See Alternative Power Sources here for information on alternatives to fossil fuels.
"Teach your children what we have taught ours, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." - Chief Seattle, Squamish people (1855)