Securing natural capital and expanding equity to rescale civilization.
In biophysical terms, humanity has never been moving faster nor further from sustainability than it is now. Our increasing population size and per capita impacts are severely testing the ability of Earth to provide for peoples' most basic needs. Awareness of these circumstances has grown tremendously, as has the sophistication of efforts to address them. But the complexity of the challenge remains daunting. We explore prospects for transformative change in three critical areas of sustainable development: achieving a sustainable population size and securing vital natural capital, both in part through reducing inequity, and strengthening the societal leadership of academia.
Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA. pre@stanford.edu
Paul R
PR
Ehrlich
Peter M
PM
Kareiva
Gretchen C
GC
Daily
D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D017753:Ecosystem; D058735:Environmental Policy / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012737:Sex Factors