ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces the concepts of sustainability and sustainability science. It defines sustainability and human well-being, introduces some sustainability measures, and then introduces the concepts of capital stocks and flows, renewable and nonrenewable resources, and the laws of sustainability. The book also introduces the ImPACT identity along with an overview of its components: Population, Affluence, Consumption, and Technology. It explores the system dynamics approach of modeling resource stocks and flows in complex systems with feedback loops. The book also explores sustainable development, the properties of sustainable societies, and some of the social problems that sustainable development can help solve, including poverty and the negative impacts of globalization and urbanization. It discusses limits to the production of natural resources and examines the global climate change and the problems it may cause.
