Securing natural capital and expanding equity to rescale civilization.

Paul Ehrlich, Peter Kareiva and Gretchen Daily outline “some essential features of conceptual thought and quantitative analysis on sustainability, and explore promising pathways for deep and lasting transformation.”

ABSTRACT: In biophysical terms, humanity has never been moving faster nor further from sustainability than it is now. Our increasing population size and per capita impacts are severely testing the ability of Earth to provide for peoples’ most basic needs. Awareness of these circumstances has grown tremendously, as has the sophistication of efforts to address them. But the complexity of the challenge remains daunting. We explore prospects for transformative change in three critical areas of sustainable development: achieving a sustainable population size and securing vital natural capital, both in part through reducing inequity, and strengthening the societal leadership of academia.