The Ecology and Society NetWork

At the end the first decade of the 21st Century, we are in a transition phase in the evolution of the planet. Two relevant snapshots come to mind: the increasing levels of carbon-dioxide concentration in the atmosphere over the last 50 years and the sharp increase in global temperatures over the past 80 years. Both reveal human-induced global changes. The former shows how we have changed the earth’s biogeochemical cycles by pumping carbon from underground stores and releasing it (through land clearing and combustion) into the atmosphere. The latter indicates that these biogeochemical changes lead to unintended consequences, such as fluctuating temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, and melting glaciers and sea ice among others. In fact, the recent great acceleration of human activities now suggests that we are challenging critical dynamic boundaries of the current Holocene state of our planet, the state in which human civilizations have flourished (see Rockstrom et al. 2009). World leaders are wrestling with climate and other global environmental challenges, searching for better policies (see Rosenberg 2009), and rethinking social contracts (see O’Brien et al. 2009). Globalization has come to dominate the economic, social, and political dimensions of our lives as well. Most of us live in urban areas, with institutions and markets that shape the surface of every corner of earth, and we are interconnected through the Internet and media, which allow for rapid spreading of information worldwide.