To live within Earth’s limits: an Australian plan to develop a science of the whole Earth system
Advancing the science needed to address the growing globalisation of human impacts on the environment.
This precious and beautiful blue planet on which we live is complex beyond measure, so complex that a whole new science – an integrative science of the Earth system (Earth System Science or ESS) – is needed to understand it.
This report, prepared by the National Committee for Earth System Science, lays out a systematic and coherent plan to create an Australian scientific enterprise – combining inputs from the natural and social sciences, economics, and the humanities – which is devoted to understanding the planet’s life support systems.
Its primary aim is to discover the Earth’s biophysical limits and how to live within them.