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Sustainability or Collapse: What Can We Learn from Integrating the History of Humans and the Rest of Nature

Sustainability or Collapse: What Can We Learn from Integrating the History of Humans and the Rest of Nature
Sustainability or Collapse: What Can We Learn from Integrating the History of Humans and the Rest of Nature
Understanding the history of how humans have interacted
with the rest of nature can help clarify the options for
managing our increasingly interconnected global system.
Simple, deterministic relationships between environmental
stress and social change are inadequate. Extreme
drought, for instance, triggered both social collapse and
ingenious management of water through irrigation. Human
responses to change, in turn, feed into climate and
ecological systems, producing a complex web of multidirectional
connections in time and space. Integrated
records of the co-evolving human-environment system
over millennia are needed to provide a basis for a deeper
understanding of the present and for forecasting the
future. This requires the major task of assembling and
integrating regional and global historical, archaeological,
and paleoenvironmental records. Humans cannot predict
the future. But, if we can adequately understand the past,
we can use that understanding to influence our decisions
and to create a better, more sustainable and desirable
future.
0044-7447
522-527
Costanza, R.
868cb2ac-38ff-4473-8d3b-beca3b65a5f2
Graumlich, L.J.
444b4c16-b974-4f36-9ee2-f9d2ecba50df
Steffen, W.
0fd0c7c3-0893-4e47-899d-0504aa6b2c9b
Crumley, C.L.
5565eebb-0da7-4abc-ab05-da4a5f95f982
Dearing, J.A.
dff37300-b8a6-4406-ad84-89aa01de03d7
Hibbard, K.
ed7b6717-2783-4bf5-9f41-6a3572979016
Leemans, R.
f45e3193-5cc1-4d0f-bf17-8db6dff1e0fc
Redman, C.
d8310168-2ed6-45f8-9b16-c9cfd954fc27
Schimel, D.
f5b568aa-8d5a-44de-9258-9368ee787747
Costanza, R.
868cb2ac-38ff-4473-8d3b-beca3b65a5f2
Graumlich, L.J.
444b4c16-b974-4f36-9ee2-f9d2ecba50df
Steffen, W.
0fd0c7c3-0893-4e47-899d-0504aa6b2c9b
Crumley, C.L.
5565eebb-0da7-4abc-ab05-da4a5f95f982
Dearing, J.A.
dff37300-b8a6-4406-ad84-89aa01de03d7
Hibbard, K.
ed7b6717-2783-4bf5-9f41-6a3572979016
Leemans, R.
f45e3193-5cc1-4d0f-bf17-8db6dff1e0fc
Redman, C.
d8310168-2ed6-45f8-9b16-c9cfd954fc27
Schimel, D.
f5b568aa-8d5a-44de-9258-9368ee787747

Costanza, R., Graumlich, L.J., Steffen, W., Crumley, C.L., Dearing, J.A., Hibbard, K., Leemans, R., Redman, C. and Schimel, D. (2007) Sustainability or Collapse: What Can We Learn from Integrating the History of Humans and the Rest of Nature. Ambio, 36 (7), 522-527. (doi:10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[522:SOCWCW]2.0.CO;2).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Understanding the history of how humans have interacted
with the rest of nature can help clarify the options for
managing our increasingly interconnected global system.
Simple, deterministic relationships between environmental
stress and social change are inadequate. Extreme
drought, for instance, triggered both social collapse and
ingenious management of water through irrigation. Human
responses to change, in turn, feed into climate and
ecological systems, producing a complex web of multidirectional
connections in time and space. Integrated
records of the co-evolving human-environment system
over millennia are needed to provide a basis for a deeper
understanding of the present and for forecasting the
future. This requires the major task of assembling and
integrating regional and global historical, archaeological,
and paleoenvironmental records. Humans cannot predict
the future. But, if we can adequately understand the past,
we can use that understanding to influence our decisions
and to create a better, more sustainable and desirable
future.

Text
Costanza et al 2007 Ambio.pdf - Other
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Published date: November 2007

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 55714
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/55714
ISSN: 0044-7447
PURE UUID: 480c295b-1f93-4869-aa65-148fa0db5a66
ORCID for J.A. Dearing: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1466-9640

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Date deposited: 05 Aug 2008
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:38

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Contributors

Author: R. Costanza
Author: L.J. Graumlich
Author: W. Steffen
Author: C.L. Crumley
Author: J.A. Dearing ORCID iD
Author: K. Hibbard
Author: R. Leemans
Author: C. Redman
Author: D. Schimel

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