The future of the biosphere looks bleak in many ways as the world faces severe problems, the biggest of which is the rapidly increasing human population. More and more people are putting greater and greater demands on finite resources. The global distribution patterns of humans and their production and consumption of food, energy, and minerals are extremely unequal. The disparities will only get larger as the number of people increases; most of the increase in population will occur in the countries that can least afford it and are the worst off already. The rate of extinction of valuable species will accelerate as humans destroy their environments either directly or via pollution. If societies are currently unable to meet the needs of all their people, what hope is there for meeting those needs in the future (or even maintaining the status quo, much less improving standards of living) when the demands will be even greater? It will take concerted international efforts, and not just by politicians, if these problems are to be solved. Research must be conducted in areas such as improving agricultural productivity, developing new crops, and designing workable renewable energy systems. The results must be implemented on a global scale. Most of all, we must control our population growth. It is encouraging that efforts are already under way in all of these areas. To continue to survive on this planet, humans must understand biology and must implement sound biological principles. We must understand how and why ecosystems and organisms function as they do, and we must take heed of the biological principles that apply to all living organisms.