Science, society and a sustainable future

Abstract

The science is unequivocal. We as humanity face a climate crisis, a biosphere crisis and a health crisis, which all interact across scales from local communities to the planetary scale, placing us at an unprecedented state of risk. The corona crisis is a manifestation of the social and ecological vulnerabilities in the Anthropocene, and provides ample support for the need to move quickly and decisively to bend the global curves of greenhouse gas emissions and to slow and halt the undermining of the natural ecosystems on Earth. Inter-disciplinary research, across the social sciences, humanities, economics, to the Earth system sciences, plays a pivotal role in providing early warnings, lessons learnt and generate solutions for a sustainable future. Science, technology and innovation, working with communities and societies across the world, can be the means of achieving the sustainable, equitable and resilient future for both people and the planet that we seek.