Roadmap

In this section we continue to work on understanding the system, but we also are moving onto defining the goal of sustainability, specifically, to understand that the link between the biosphere and society is crucial for creating the right feedbacks and incentives that can affect how we manage our planet. We are now going to focus on the task of reconnecting to the Biosphere.

Throughout human history, the planet has been seen as a spacious home with seemingly endless resources. This perspective has allowed human development to rely on huge energy and material resources. It has also created a lack of concern for our waste. As a result resources, like materials, energy and land, have become limited and waste is now making its way back into our food chain by polluting our living environment. The bounds that allow human existence are shrinking and we have recently become acutely aware that we no longer live in a spacious home.

Urbanization has removed much of the direct signals that people living in rural areas are sensitive to, like waste and fuel management, the connection between food production and the aesthetics of their environment. In cities, these signals are replaced by a hole in the wall for waste, a water closet for a constant water supply, a supermarket and paying a bill to make sure the wall sockets keep providing electricity. Emotional attachment to the systems providing these services have become increasingly more indirect or in some cases are nearly non-existent. The market globalisation of commodities that cities are so highly dependent on (like food and energy) has masked any signals from local production systems. This makes it nearly impossible to tell when our systems are under pressure or are being degraded even though we know that they are.

However, it is important to remember that in a globalized society, there are no ecosystems without people and all people depend on functioning ecosystems. They are intrinsically intertwined and thus, ecosystem services are generated by social ecological systems. The shift from viewing people and nature as separated parts to interdependent social–ecological systems provides exciting opportunities for societal development in tune with the biosphere; a global sustainability agenda for humanity.

Many communicative methods have been used to highlight society’s dependence on natural systems, including ecosystem services, ecological footprint and life cycle analysis. Here we will focus on ecosystem services as well as food production in, for example for cities, and its role in shaping land use change