Sharing the Planet: Population - Consumption - Species

Some major environmental and development problems - such as the loss of species, climate change and human poverty - have significantly worsened over the last decade of the 20th century. The outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, make many pessimistic about our capacity to solve these problems. The internationally renowned scholars contributing to this volume conclude that immense endeavours by the international community are required over the first decades of the new millennium to effectively deal with the challenge ahead of establishing sustainable development. They also conclude that a renewed public awareness is needed of the inescapable limits of our planet's resources. The complexity of the interconnections between the many issues and various dimensions of the sustainability conundrum makes that some have lost grip of overseeing the entirety of the problematique. There is therefore continuing need for clear expositions of the totality of the challenge. One of the essential elements of this challenge is to imminently address the rapid, human-induced, loss of species. This book aims to fill an often-existing gap: it assesses various specific biodiversity-related features in detail, while attempting not to lose track of the sustainability problem at large. Moreover, the purpose is to formulate realistic strategies that can contribute to bringing about changes in the international policy arena necessary for reaching a sustainable and equitable world. The book is intended for scientists, policy-makers, and interested and concerned world citizens alike.