How should the human community reorganize its activities towards a healthy relationship with Earth?

The focus of Earth System Research (ESR) involves, according to Reid et al. (2009), the interaction between land, atmosphere, water, ice, biosphere, societies, technologies and economies. Eventually ESR should lead to the prediction of global environmental changes.

Amongst these eight sectors of the system, those capable of some control by the human community are ‘societies’, ‘technologies’ and ‘economies’. These then are the sectors where human-induced unwarranted changes should be confronted with priority. We know much about the other sectors through research in the natural sciences but we have no control over them beyond the effects of the above three sectors. Limited predictability leads to social uncertainty, consequent unpleasant and intense but fruitless debate as in the field of climate change.

Despite voluminous research on societies, the predictability of social dynamics is also limited. Yet, the required confrontation seems, in principle, rather simple. We just have to realize that with its increasing complexity the human community has soiled and continues to soil its own nest in the widest sense and in ever greater measure, local counteraction over the last two decades notwithstanding.

Society, technology and economy can, of course, clean the nest and keep it clean. This is all that mankind can do to confront and possibly contain the well-known undesirable human-induced changes in the environment. It is not a matter of further natural and social science research but of political will because of the myriad of serious conflicts of interest that have to be resolved. Against this background a new ESR agenda is not as urgent as Reid et al. (2009) suggest. The priority is in cleaning up System Earth.

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