Q&A
The world''s present development path is not sustainable. Meeting fundamental human needs while preserving the life support systems of planet Earth will require a world wide acceleration toward sustainability practices. But despite widespread agreement on the central role that science and technology will need to play in promoting that acceleration, today''s R&D agendas are poorly attuned to the challenge. Now an international group of prominent scientists and scholars are seeking to redress that imbalance with a call for something new -- sustainability science.
William Clark is one of the key participants in a call for this new approach. He and others put forward their recommendations in the magazine Science and the newly launched Sustainability Science Forum: http://sustsci.harvard.edu/index.html
Q: What''s different about sustainability science?
Clark: Sustainability science seeks knowledge and know-how to promote internationally sanctioned goals of feeding, nurturing, housing, educating and employing a growing world population while conserving the basic life support systems of the planet. It differs from much of conventional science in that it takes its questions from pressing problems of the human condition rather than contemporary trends in the academic disciplines. It is nonetheless fundamental science, seeking to understand the complex ways in which economic development, social institutions, and the natural environment interact to shape the world in which we live. In pursuit of these goals, sustainability science seeks to integrate economics with ecology, global trends with local uniqueness, and academic scholarship with management practice.
Q: Who cares about sustainability science?
Clark: Governments and other advocates involved in initiatives to reduce hunger and poverty and promote economic growth are increasingly finding their efforts hemmed in by environmental and resource constraints. They are embracing sustainability science as a source of knowledge and know-how for avoiding or mitigating those barriers. At the same time, environmental researchers and development scholars are finding in sustainability science a means to connect their work more directly and helpfully with social action.
Q: What are the central challenges facing sustainability science initiatives over the next several years?
Clark: The sustainability science agenda needs be expanded beyond its origins in the global environmental science programs to better encompass the priorities of regionally situated development scholarship and scholars. It needs to strengthen the infrastructure and capacity to carry out its primary research and development tasks, especially in the developing world. Finally, it needs to break free of outmoded dichotomies of "basic" vs. "applied" research, and of "knowledge" vs. "action," complementing them with approaches more conducive to social learning through critically reflective practice.
Q: Where is the action on sustainability science?
Clark: Sustainability science is moving for ward along three pathways. First, efforts are underway throughout the world at national, regional and international scales to incorporate sustainability science perspectives into research and development planning. Second is a movement to connect sustainability science to the development policy agenda, targeting in particular the World Summit on Sustainable Development, scheduled for the summer of 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Third, and most important, individual scholars and research groups around the world are increasingly focusing on how we can learn to better navigate a transition toward sustainability.