ABSTRACT
In March 2005, the results of a four-year study by 1,360 of the world’s top scientists were announced. This comprehensive environmental analysis, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), warns that nearly two thirds of the ecosystem services on which human society depends are being degraded or used unsustainably-a trend that could “grow significantly worse” over the next 50 years if human society does not alter its course. As the MA Board of Directors noted in its own statement when the full results were released, human activity-including economic pursuits-“is putting such strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.”1
