There is a new very advanced virtual reality system that just came out (almost like the holodeck on Star Trek). The “reality” it simulates is generated by a cross between a real-time systems simulation model of the biophysical environment, an agent-based personality simulator (a super-Sims),...

My solution is: get outraged…

Ecological restoration — the rehabilitation of degraded landscapes — is a bright spark in the effort to achieve sustainable development. If given a chance, damaged ecosystems can recover rapidly. Research shows that forest ecosystems recovered in 42 years on average, while ocean bottoms...

Let us imagine for a moment that we are at 2100, and the atmospheric CO2 level is slowly subsiding back toward 350, and the worst is over. Let us try to figure out how we got there — reverse-engineer a century of halting but ultimately decisive progress…

In hearing rooms, hallways, and conferences where the world's policymakers are wrestling with the big issues of our day, something important is missing.

Many politicians want us to lower our expectations about the economy. I say it is time to raise them. We should go beyond the shriveled thinking imposed on us by today's mania for austerity. Even the Contract for the American Dream — 10 steps for fixing the economy, selected from over 25,000...

Can 10th grade Inuit students in Repulse Bay (Nunavut, Canada) teach the world governments something about ways to measure progress…

As a sociologist, I often roamed the dirt tracks of the poor sections of my hometown Caracas, and it seemed to me that from the open windows, I would always hear someone singing or strumming the Venezuelan four-string guitar, el cuatro, or see some fellow unselfconsciously walking by whistling...

Evolution equipped us to deal with threats from dependably loathsome enemies and fearsome creatures, but not with the opaque and cumulative long-term consequences of our own technological and demographic success. As cartoonist Walt Kelly once put it, “We've met the enemy, and he is us”…

In 1987, the Brundtland Commission released a report that would define the next 25 years of progress toward a sustainable future. Breaking with earlier conventions that saw development exclusively in terms of economic growth, the report urged policymakers to include social and environmental...