Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of keywords covered in the subsequent chapters of the book. This book proposes transdisciplinary solutions to unsustainable development. Thus, the principal aim of this book is to discuss how sustainable development might be better addressed in the context of an unpredictable Earth System. It adds to the range of consideration of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) a more detailed and explicit consideration of epistemology, ethics and participation. The book is transdisciplinary in the sense that it discusses the science of sustainable development, in a way that is unusual for social science treatments of sustainable development. This book approaches to compare official sustainable development policy documents and academic sustainable development literature, in order to identify and suggest possible alternatives or even improved epistemology, ethics and policy-making processes. It also intended to allow us to be sufficiently wise to save ourselves from irrational undemocratic blind industrialism, whether communist or capitalist.