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3
Multidimensional Challenges
to Human Sustainability
3.1 Introduction
One hears debates today on what is the most serious, current challenge to
human sustainability. Actually, there are many important factors affecting
human unsustainability, and it is difcult to rank them by their gravity. Most
adverse factors are slowly acting; their effects at present are felt at a rate that
it easy for people to adapt to or even ignore. These factors also interact, which
makes it hard to separate their effects on unsustainability. They include, but
are not limited to the following: (1) population growth; (2) loss of fresh water
due to climate change ...