"Sustainability Science"

Discussion Paper 2000-33, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Authors: Robert Kates, Former Visiting Scholar, Environment and Natural Resources Program, 1997-2000, Nancy Dickson, Former Associate Director, Global Environmental Assessment Project; Executive Director, Research and Assessment Systems for Sustainability, Robert Corell, Former Senior Research Fellow, Global Environment Assessment Project/Environment and Natural Resources Program, 2000-2003, William Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development; Co-director, Sustainability Science Program; Faculty Chair, ENRP;

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Environment and Natural Resources; Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability; Research and Assessment Systems for Sustainability

ABSTRACT

Meeting fundamental human needs while preserving earth's life support systems will require an accelerated transition toward sustainability. A new field of sustainability science is emerging that seeks to understand the fundamental character of interactions between nature and society and to encourage those interactions along more sustainable trajectories. Such an integrated, place-based science will require new research strategies and institutional innovations to enable them especially in developing countries still separated by deepening divides from mainstream science. Sustainability science needs to be widely discussed in the scientific community, reconnected to the political agenda for sustainable development, and become a major focus for research.

A shorter version of this paper was published in the Policy Forum section of Science (vol. 292, pp. 641-42). The full text of the article is available free of charge to individuals with a subscription for Science Online (alternatively, members of the Harvard University community can access Science Online through HOLLIS Plus). Individuals who do not have a subscription for Science Online and are not affiliated with Harvard can find a link to the full text of this article on the Forum on Science and Technology for Sustainability web site.

Supplementary information for the article is also available on the Science Online web site (no subscription required).

The longer version of this paper with full citations is also available, in PDF format, on the Research and Assessment Systems for Sustainability web site.

For more information about the emerging field of sustainability science, visit the Forum on Science and Technology for Sustainability.

For more information about this publication please contact the ENRP Program Coordinator at 617-495-1351.

Full text of this publication is available at:
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/BCSIA/sust.nsf/pubs/pub7/$File/2000-33.pdf

For Academic Citation: