Opening paragraphs:
The goal of achieving global sustainability is to meet society’s current needs by using Earth’s natural resources without compromising the needs of future generations. Yet, many disparate research and management efforts are uncoordinated and unintentionally counterproductive toward global sustainability because a reductionist focus on individual components of an integrated global system can overlook critical interactions across system components. Although our planet is a single system comprising complex interactions between humans and nature, research and management typically isolate system components (such as air, biodiversity, energy, food, land, water, and people). As a result, the compounding environmental impacts of human activities have too often been missed because they go beyond the organizational level, space, and time of focus. For example, large amounts of affordable and reliable energy are available in fossil fuels, but concomitant emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) will alter global climate and affect other human and natural systems—a trade-off that current policies have not adequately addressed. Likewise, attention to growing more food on land may inadvertently result in excess use of fertilizers and in turn eutrophication of downstream coastal waters that compromises food production from the ocean. Progressing toward global sustainability requires a systems approach to integrate various socioeconomic and environmental components that interact across organi- zational levels, space, and time.
Systems integration generates many benefits compared with isolated studies, including understanding of interconnectivity and complexity. Here, we review recent advances in developing and quantifying frameworks for systems integration of coupled human and natural systems; illustrate successful applications, focusing on unexpected impacts of biofuels and hidden roles of virtual water and discuss future directions for using systems integration toward global sustainability.
This isn't just a call for activism, but for deeper analysis.
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