Sustainable Development
April 30, 2004 Jeffrey D. Sachs     In March 2004 the Earth Institute at Columbia University convened the third biennial State of the Planet conference in New York to address the theme, "Mobilizing the Sciences to Fight Global Poverty." In his editorial in the 30 April 2004 issue of Science, Jeffrey D. Sachs -- Director (more)...

A Case for More 'Joined Up Thinking'
2004 David Dickson, SciDev.Net The United Nations' Millennium Development Goals cannot be achieved without the use of science. But more 'joined up thinking' is required in development circles if this is to be realised.

Industrial Sustainability through Biotechnology
2003 Peter C. K. Lau Good experiences with industrial biotechnology via the use of biocatalysts (enzymes) versus traditional processes need to be documented and shared. Such was the basis for the 2001 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) report on "The Application of Biotechnology for Industrial Sustainability." There is a need to promote further (more)...

The Challenges Posed by Sustainable Development to Science and Technology
2004 Gilberto C. Gallopín The Challenges Posed by Sustainable Development to Science and Technology

The World Summit on Sustainable Development: Seeing the Negative Positively
2002 Diego Malpede Commentary on the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).  It is difficult to escape the negative perception of the results of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The state of the world after Rio showed the lack of will of the international community to implement Agenda 21. Honoring these (more)...

The Biosphere, Health, and 'Sustainability'
2002 Tony McMichael, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University, Australia. We will miss an important opportunity if the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the end of this month concentrates on conventional economic development. Material advancement, freer trade, and expanded markets are legitimate immediate goals, as is poverty reduction. Indeed, the former should enhance the latter. But these will count for (more)...

Think Locally, Act Locally
2002 Calestous Juma In a recent speech, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan set out five priorities for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held in Johannesburg: health, energy, water, agriculture and biological diversity (see Annan sets priorities for Johannesburg summit). These areas represent a convergence of international opinion on issues where collective action to implement sustainable development objectives is both feasible and desirable.

Sustainability, Scale, and Critical Connections
2002 Lisa Harrington Commentary on Robert Kates' essay on Long-Term Trends and Transitions.   Kates1 provides at least 15 questions2 in five major topical areas. In a short essay, he provides an excellent set of critical questions for assessing a sustainability transition. Related to his questions, I will concentrate (more)...

Monitoring and Assessing Sustainability Indices
2002 Francisco Barbarán I have just read Bob Kates' essay on Long Term Trends and Transitions. It gives good starting points for discussion, and in consequence, I would like to share my first reactions with the other members of the Network. I think that it is possible to construct sustainability indices that can help with decision-making. (more)...

Integrated Assessments, Long-Term Trends, and Science-Policy Interfaces
2002 Mohd Nordin Hasan Comments on Role and Contributions of the Scientific and Technological Community (S&TC) to Sustainable Development by World Summit on Sustainable Development. Secretary-General's Note for the Multi-Stake Holder Dialogue Segment of the Second Preparatory Committee. Addendum No. 8: Dialogue Paper by Scientific and Technological Communities. United Nations Economic and Social Council (more)...

Knowledge Partnerships, Environment, and Development
2002 Tom Malone Comments on Role and Contributions of the Scientific and Technological Community (S&TC) to Sustainable Development by World Summit on Sustainable Development. Secretary-General's Note for the Multi-Stake Holder Dialogue Segment of the Second Preparatory Committee. Addendum No. 8: Dialogue Paper by Scientific and Technological Communities. United Nations Economic and Social Council E/CN.17/2002/PC.2/6.Add.8. Advance Copy, 28 January 2002. Prepared by the International (more)...

Sustainability Science of Local Communities
2001 Deep Narayan Pandey, Indian Forest Service Nature-society interactions confront a range of challenges including maintenance of ecosystems services, conservation of biodiversity, and sustainability of the essential ecological processes and life support systems in human dominated ecosystems at local and global scales. This has often resulted in human ill-being and threats to the food security of the world’s poorest. To avert these threats, natural and social sciences (more)...

Criteria and Indicators for Sustainability
2001 Naim Hamdia Afgan Comments on Sustainability Science, by R.W. Kates et al., Published in Science, 27 April, Volume 292, pp. 641-642, 2001.   Dear Editors, Agenda 21, adopted by the Rio Conference, included specific tasks for the scientific community to meet political policy strategy for the 21st century. It has been ten years (more)...

Emergence, Connectionism, and Ecological Selfhood
2001 Dan Fiscus Dear Editors, As an ecologist and "systems thinker,” I have worked on the problems of sustainability directly for about eight years now. I would like to offer some comments and suggestions on your web site. First, I offer three comments on this statement on your core questions page: "It will also require fundamental advances in our ability to address such issues as the behavior of complex self-organizing systems, (more)...