Invitation to Earth Stewardship

E arth is now in a state without precedent, defined by human dominance of fundamental processes, including the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles; species extinctions; sedimentation; and ocean acidification. The world is also increasingly interdependent: people and places are linked by carbon and nitrogen as well as by globalization and the internet. We are in territory unknown to past generations, and can no longer assume that future events can be understood by reference to those of the past. This realization has profound and urgent consequences for the ways that people study, design, manage, represent, interpret, and govern human and natural systems. The 20th century witnessed a proliferation of scientific subdisciplines and also of philosophies about society and the environment. With few exceptions, these rely on the division of landscapes into discrete units with specific purposes, such as to produce food or minerals; to provide water, timber, forage or wildlife habitat ; and to support human settlements. For each of these purposes, one or more disciplines propelled greater efficiencies in resource exploitation and production as associated knowledge and technology developed. In 1997, recognizing the connection between environmental health, national security, and social justice, ecologist Jane Lubchenco called for a " new social contract for science " to address the challenges of a human-dominated planet. Yet, over 15 years later, theories and research in conservation and ecology continue to focus on managing particular types of land for one or a few products or services. Such approaches may yield short-term efficiencies but often reduce longer term resilience and increase the risks of catastrophic failure. Even the venerable concept of stewardship, which emphasized the profound interconnectedness of people and their environments, has generally been applied under the assumption of dividing landscapes for separate purposes. Changing the role of science in society is necessary but not sufficient to meet the challenges before us – the practices of science must also change. We offer the following seven recommendations to researchers as starting points for discussion: (1) Expand the concept of stewardship to encompass all lands and waters: urban as well as rural; the open oceans as well as lakes, rivers, and coasts; and areas actively managed as well as those set aside from direct human exploitation. (2) Work alongside various stakeholders – policy makers, professionals , employers and employees, educators, artists, clergy and laypeople, young and old – to envision and realize a future that is …