World summit on sustainable development - critical issues for science and technology

摘要

The recently concluded United Nations Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa offers an opportunity to reflect on the role of science, technology and engineering in addressing global environmental issues. Over the past decade, our scientific understanding of the environment has expanded dramatically and new technologies for environmental improvement are steadily finding their way into industrial practice. Green chemistry and engineering offer some very specific methods that demonstrate the how of sustainable development after seemingly endless discussion over the why and what does sustainable development mean. Yet a dominant theme during the Summit was disappointment over environmental progress during the decade between the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and this one. Herein lies a gap between the perceptions of the scientific community and the general public. Beyond the rhetoric, posturing and politics of sustainable development in Johannesburg lies a set of issues that are crucial for the scientific community to understand and address.