More than 40 years ago the economist John Kenneth Galbraith remarked that the world had arrived at the “Age of Uncertainty.” Fast forward to 2019 and human society’s pace of change is ever more rapid. Artificial intelligence, the internet of things, climate change, the rise of China and India, among other factors, have multiplied the challenges and risks. We cannot get back to a less connected world, nor can we dismiss concerns about the major challenges we face. Indeed, technological, social and environmental drivers will transform our world into an even riskier place in 2050 than it already is today.
In other words, to ensure that we are on track toward a sustainable future, we urgently need decision-making that allows social-ecological-economic systems to ‘bounce back’ or to become transformed, such that our planet maintains desirable (from a human and planetary perspective) properties.
Several major insights emerge from theoretical, model and empirical considerations:
We urgently need to transform our decision-making, and use innovative and proven methods to deliver a sustainable and resilient world for tomorrow. This will be a long and winding road, but a journey we must make together.
R. Quentin Grafton (The Australian National University) and Ben van der Pluijm (University of Michigan)
Human society faces many challenges ahead;
creating a sustainable and resilient world
will not be a straightforward journey.
Credit: Free-Photos (public domain)
creating a sustainable and resilient world
will not be a straightforward journey.
Credit: Free-Photos (public domain)
In other words, to ensure that we are on track toward a sustainable future, we urgently need decision-making that allows social-ecological-economic systems to ‘bounce back’ or to become transformed, such that our planet maintains desirable (from a human and planetary perspective) properties.
Several major insights emerge from theoretical, model and empirical considerations:
- Integrated modelling, robust decision-making, methods from the nexus and proven practices offer innovations that can transform ‘business as usual’ into responses to risks.
- In the decades to come, a failure to integrate new approaches into the decision-making of public and private sectors could be catastrophic.
- To successfully face our world’s challenges, we cannot return to a world that no longer exists.
We urgently need to transform our decision-making, and use innovative and proven methods to deliver a sustainable and resilient world for tomorrow. This will be a long and winding road, but a journey we must make together.
R. Quentin Grafton (The Australian National University) and Ben van der Pluijm (University of Michigan)
Citation: Grafton, R. Q., and B. van der Pluijm (2019), The long and winding road: Making resilience real, Eos, 100, https://doi.org/10.1029/.
