Environmental and management methods and procedures developed for the planet’s present climate will not be effective after irreversible climate change occurs. To quote Rubin (2009, p 17) ‘‘Suddenly the text books seem to be describing some other world than the one we live in.’’ Because the results of climate change cannot be known until they do occur, the focus of new environmental and management methods and procedures is unknown at present, but professionals should be prepared to act when they are known. Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, and reaching zero discharge of carbon dioxide is not probable as long as fossil fuels (petroleum, coal, natural gas) are a major source of energy. As a consequence, environmental changes that have already occurred are not likely to be reversed. ‘‘The severity of damaging human-induced climate change depends not only on the magnitude of the change but also on the potential for irreversibility . . . the climate change that takes place due to increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop’’ (Solomon et al. 2009, p 1704). ‘‘Global average temperatures increase while CO2 is increasing and then remain approximately constant (within __ 0.58C) until the end of the millennium despite zero further emissions . . . ’’ (Solomon et al. 2009, p 1705). Therefore, humankind is likely to experience climate change for 1000 years after anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions cease. Nonanthropogenic carbon is in the atmosphere—e.g., drying wetlands, thawing permafrost—and these positive feedback loops are likely to accelerate. Rapid climate change may soon become the norm, and all humankind must adjust to it effectively. Obviously, global problems require global collaborations from the world’s nations. Failure to do so effectively will ensure that climate change continues. The encouraging aspect of collaboration and improvisation is that ‘‘carbon dioxide is the only greenhouse gas whose falloff displays multiple rather than single time constraints . . . Current emissions of major non-CO2 greenhouse gases such as methane or nitrous oxide are significant for climate change in the next few decades or century, but these gases do not persist over time in the same way as carbon dioxide’’ (Solomon et al. 2009, p 1705).