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Science 27 April 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5517, pp. 641 - 642
DOI: 10.1126/science.1059386


Abstract
Full Text 		Sustainability Science
Robert W. Kates, William C. Clark, Robert Corell, J. Michael Hall, Carlo C. Jaeger, Ian Lowe, James J. McCarthy, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Bert Bolin, Nancy M. Dickson, Sylvie Faucheux, Gilberto C. Gallopin, Arnulf Grübler, Brian Huntley, Jill Jäger, Narpat S. Jodha, Roger E. Kasperson, Akin Mabogunje, Pamela Matson, Harold Mooney, Berrien Moore III, Timothy O'Riordan, and Uno Svedin

Supplementary Material

Supplemental Table 1. Core Questions of Sustainability Science
1. How can the dynamic interactions between nature and society-including lags and inertia-be better incorporated in emerging models and conceptualizations that integrate the Earth system, human development, and sustainability (1)?
2. How are long-term trends in environment and development, including consumption and population, reshaping nature-society interactions in ways relevant to sustainability (2)?
3. What determines the vulnerability or resilience of the nature-society system in particular kinds of places and for particular types of ecosystems and human livelihoods (3)?
4. Can scientifically meaningful "limits" or "boundaries" be defined that would provide effective warning of conditions beyond which the nature-society systems incur a significantly increased risk of serious degradation (4)?
5. What systems of incentive structures-including markets, rules, norms and scientific information- can most effectively improve social capacity to guide interactions between nature and society toward more sustainable trajectories (5)?
6. How can today's operational systems for monitoring and reporting on environmental and social conditions be integrated or extended to provide more useful guidance for efforts to navigate a transition toward sustainability (6)?
7. How can today's relatively independent activities of research planning, monitoring, assessment, and decision support be better integrated into systems for adaptive management and societal learning (7)?

References and Notes

  1. International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), "Global Analysis, Integration and Modelling," (IGBP, International Council of Scientific Unions, (ICSU), Durham, NH, 2000) http://gaim.unh.edu/; H. J. Schellnhuber, Nature 402, C19 (1999); National Research Council, Committee on Global Change Research, Global Environmental Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade (National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1999), p. 531, http://www.nap.edu/catalog/5992.html.
  2. National Research Council, Board on Sustainable Development, Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability (National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1999), pp. 59-132, http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9690.html; A. Grübler, Technology and Global Change (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1998).
  3. For vulnerability, see W. C. Clark et al., "Assessing Vulnerability to Global Environmental Risks" (Research and Assessment Systems for Sustainability Program Discussion Paper 2000-12, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2000), http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/bcsia/sust.nsf/pubs/pub1; T. E. Downing, IHDP Update 2000 3, http://www.uni-bonn.de/ihdp/IHDPUpdate0003/vulnerability.htm; R. E Kasperson, J. X. Kasperson, B. L. Turner II, Ambio 28, 562 (1999); C. Vogel, LUCC Newsletter 3, 15 (1999), http://www.uni- bonn.de/ihdp/lucc/publications/ luccnews/news3/coleen.html; J. C. Ribot, A. R. Magalhaes, S. Panagides, Eds., Climate Variability, Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in the Semi-Arid Tropics (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1996). For resilience, see G. D. Peterson, Climatic Change 44, 291 (2000); L. Gunderson, Conservation Ecology 3, 7 (1999), http://www.consecol.org/vol3/iss1/art7.
  4. M. S. Cresser, Science of the Total Environment 249, 1 (2000); R. A. Skeffington, Environmental Science and Technology 33, 245A (1999); S. R. Carpenter, D. Ludwig, W. A. Brock, Ecological Applications 9, 751 (1999).
  5. T. Sandler, Global Challenges: An Approach to Environmental, Political, and Economic Problems (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1997); L. H. Goulder, I. W. H. Parry, R. C. Williams et al., Journal of Public Economics 72, 329 (1999); J. B. Wiener, Yale Law Journal 108, 677 (1999); B. Gustafsson, Ecological Economics 24, 259 (1998).
  6. National Research Council, Board on Sustainable Development, Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability (National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1999), pp. 233-275, http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9690.html; D. Meadows, Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development: A Report to the Balaton Group (The Sustainability Institute, Hartland Four Corners, VT, 1998), http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pdf/s_ind_2.pdf; K. N. Lee, Compass and Gyroscope (Island Press, Washington, DC, 1993).
  7. D.W. Cash, Global Environmental Change 10 (4), 241 (2000); D. H. Guston et al., Science, Technology and Human Values 26, 1 (2001); D. E. Bell, W. C. Clark, V. W. Ruttan, in Agriculture, Environment and Health: Sustainable Development in the 21st Century, V. W. Ruttan, Ed. (Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1994), pp. 358-379.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)