Society

How, as a society, do we build in resilience and opportunity to this change?

All human societies depend on services and solutions provided by Ecosystems, Life and the Earth. It is in our interest to ensure the sustainability of that provision. We are critical drivers of change and also directly impacted by change. Thus, we play a key role in shaping environmental change and developing strategies for adaption, for ourselves and the other components of the Earth System. 

We can use our knowledge of the adaptive process in a range of beneficial ways: to future proof crops to future climatic changes, to harness biological processes to act as biofactories to produce cleaner chemicals or to extract metals from waste to recycle for use. At the same time,  we can integrate scientific information to assist individual and group decision making that matches long-term sustainability goals. Ultimately solutions are fundamentally social, economic and political ones. How can we employ our collective drive and expertise to ensure adaptation in an equitable and socially just way?