Future challenges

摘要

The central question addressed by the papers in this special feature lies at the core of the emerging science of sustainability. What is the decision-science needed to address sustainability issues, and how does it differ from existing decision-science? The answer is not at all obvious. Many, if not the majority, of decision scientists still take the view that sustainability changes nothing but the label placed on long-standing research questions. After all, the field of resource economics has focused on the sustainable use of renewable resources since the mid-1950s (1) and on sustainable development based on the extraction of nonrenewable resources since the mid-1970s (2). The basic insights that support both foci were developed even earlier (3), while concern over the sustainability of mineral extraction has been a recurrent theme since Jevons's 19th-century speculations on the coal question (4). Others argue, however, that we are seeing the beginning of a major change in the way the science of human use and impacts on the environment is being done. The focus on panaceas provides Ostrom and colleagues with a hook to explore these arguments.