ABSTRACT
A transition is under way unlike any other in human history. We are faced with an urgent agenda: rst to stabilize and then to rejuvenate the global environment, while coping with resource scarcity and a growing population. Many factors will determine how, when, and in what shape earth and humanity will emerge from this current unsettling period. Will technological developments provide the means for dealing with the environmental forces unleashed by our past and continuing impacts, and eventually for mitigating them? Will we have a sustainable resource base for the needs of this new world?
