title: A finite world, earth sciences, and public trust.
abstract: The beginning of the 21st century has coincided with our recognition that life-sustaining earth cycles are remarkably fine-tuned, and that humans have developed technological abilities to perturb these cycles. Also, inspired bythe gifts of freedom and democracy, humans have given themselves laws to exploit nature for profit. The upshot is that nature's balance, governed by immutable physical laws, is being confronted by social laws driven by human aspirations. This conflict and its implications to the human relevance of the earth sciences are explored in the context of an extraordinary tradition of European culture known as public trust.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, 322 Hearst Mining Bldg., Berkeley CA 94720-1760, USA. tnnarasimhan@LBL.gov
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Narasimhan
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005060:Europe; D055593:Geological Phenomena; D005844:Geology; D006801:Humans; D019368:Nature; D010507:Periodicity; D011639:Public Opinion; D011640:Public Policy; D012924:Social Conditions; D035502:Trust; D014881:Water Supply