Sustainability science

Sustainability science emerged in the 21st century as a new academic discipline. This new field of science was officially introduced with a 'Birth Statement' at the World Congress 'Challenges of a Changing Earth 2001' in Amsterdam organized by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). The field reflects a desire to give the generalities and broad-based approach of “sustainability” a stronger analytic and scientific underpinning as it 'brings together scholarship and practice, global and local perspectives from north and south, and disciplines across the natural and social sciences, engineering, and medicine'. Ecologist William C. Clark proposes that it can be usefully thought of as 'neither 'basic' nor 'applied' research but as a field defined by the problems it addresses rather than by the disciplines it employs' and that it 'serves the need for advancing both knowledge and action by creating a dynamic bridge between the two'.'Sustainability science' is problem-driven, interdisciplinary scholarship that seeks to facilitate the design, implementation, and evaluation of effective interventions that foster shared prosperity and reduced poverty while protecting the environment. It is defined by the problems it addresses rather than the disciplines it employs. It thus draws as needed from multiple disciplines of the natural, social, medical and engineering sciences, from the professions, and from the knowledge of practice.... the cultivation, integration, and application of knowledge about Earth systems gained especially from the holistic and historical sciences (such as geology, ecology, climatology, oceanography) coordinated with knowledge about human interrelationships gained from the social sciences and humanities, in order to evaluate, mitigate, and minimize the consequences, regionally and worldwide, of human impacts on planetary systems and on societies across the globe and into the future – that is, in order that humans can be knowledgeable Earth stewards.... must encompass different magnitudes of scales (of time, space, and function), multiple balances (dynamics), multiple actors (interests) and multiple failures (systemic faults). Sustainability science emerged in the 21st century as a new academic discipline. This new field of science was officially introduced with a 'Birth Statement' at the World Congress 'Challenges of a Changing Earth 2001' in Amsterdam organized by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). The field reflects a desire to give the generalities and broad-based approach of “sustainability” a stronger analytic and scientific underpinning as it 'brings together scholarship and practice, global and local perspectives from north and south, and disciplines across the natural and social sciences, engineering, and medicine'. Ecologist William C. Clark proposes that it can be usefully thought of as 'neither 'basic' nor 'applied' research but as a field defined by the problems it addresses rather than by the disciplines it employs' and that it 'serves the need for advancing both knowledge and action by creating a dynamic bridge between the two'. The field is focused on examining the interactions between human, environmental, and engineered systems to understand and contribute to solutions for complex challenges that threaten the future of humanity and the integrity of the life support systems of the planet, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and land and water degradation. Sustainability science, like sustainability itself, derives some impetus from the concepts of sustainable development and environmental science. Sustainability science provides a critical framework for sustainability while sustainability measurement provides the evidence-based quantitative data needed to guide sustainability governance. Consensual definition of sustainability science is as elusive as the definition of 'sustainability' or 'sustainable development'. In an overview presented on its website in 2008 the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University described the field in the following way, stressing its interdisciplinarity: Susan W. Kieffer and colleagues, in 2003, suggested, more specifically, that sustainability science is: