Sustianability Science : A Multidisciplinary Approach

Sustainability science is a new academic discipline that has emerged in response to threats to the sustainability of the global environment. The purpose of this disciplines is to help build a sustainable society by developing solutions to climate change, the exhaustion of resources, ecological destruction and other environmental crises that threaten the future of humanity.

Sustainability science demands a realignment of existing academic disciplines. Whereas academia has move inexorably in the direction of fragmentation into discrete fields of in depth specialization sustainability science seeks comprehensive integrated solutions to complex problems and therefore requires a restructuring of education and research that spans multiple disciplines. This volume offers diverse approaches to the development of a transdisciplinary perspective that embraces the natural social and human sciences in the quest for sustainable society.

Sustainability science further demands the development of policies that confront the preeminent social issue of the twenty-first century-the sustainability of the environment in a way that protects the natural and cultural diversity of different regions of the planet and promotes the physical and economic health of their inhabitants. This volume strives for a global perspective while incorporating the wisdom and experience of societies on the local level. (jacket)