This thoroughly revised edition builds on the successful base of the first three editions, providing a broad, up-to-date survey of the major environmental issues facing the world today.

World human population is expected to reach upwards of 9 billion by 2050 and then level off over the next half-century. How can the transition to a stabilizing population also be a transition to sustainability? How can science and technology help to ensure that human needs are met while the planet's environment is nurtured and restored? Our Common Journey examines these momentous questions to draw strategic connections between scientific research, technological development, and societies' efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable improvements in human well being. The book argues that societies should approach sustainable development not as a destination but as an ongoing, adaptive learning process. Speaking to the next two generations, it proposes a strategy for using scientific and technical knowledge to better inform future action in the areas of fertility reduction, urban systems, agricultural production, energy and materials use, ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation, and suggests an approach for building a new research agenda for sustainability science. Our Common Journey documents large-scale historical currents of social and environmental change and reviews methods for "what if" analysis of possible future development pathways and their implications for sustainability. The book also identifies the greatest threats to sustainabilityâ€"in areas such as human settlements, agriculture, industry, and energyâ€"and explores the most promising opportunities for circumventing or mitigating these threats. It goes on to discuss what indicators of change, from children's birth-weights to atmosphere chemistry, will be most useful in monitoring a transition to sustainability.

This volume concerns itself with the ethical principles and concepts relating to the environment: nature, resources and the planet. This is placed in the context of ethical theory, and consideration is given to the way these values have transformed received ethical traditions. Issues include the intrinsic value of nonhuman species, obligations to future generations, and the aesthetic needs of humanity. Both the universal responsibilities and their application are investigated. The international responsibilities to the planet are seen in the context of some of the most alarming future scenarios: limited access to water, the changing global climate, population explosion, the destruction of ecosystems, and even the extinction of humanity.

The book introduces two basic approaches for understanding governance issues: Political ecology and Political economy.

Our Climate refers to the types of weather we expect at different places around the world – some places are hot or cold, or dry or wet. But we know that our climate is changing, and this is having an effect on all of us. Sometimes these changes are caused by natural things like volcanoes, but we know that most of the climate change we see is caused by humans making pollution. This pollution changes the gases in the air and traps in the sun’s heat. This makes our world warm up – sometimes called “global warming”. Climate change will affect all areas of the world – on the land, in the oceans and in the air. This will have impacts on people, animals and plants all over the world. This collection will describe lots of different aspects of climate change, why it is happening and what we can try to do about it. The goal of this special collection is to bring together a set of core articles on climate science so that young people can understand the implications of new findings. It will cover the basic elements of climate and climate change and enable children to be fully informed about what is happening to their world. We have seen a growing youth movement passionate about protecting our planet. This collection can help support such goals by ensuring objective science knowledge is made accessible to this next generation.