Publication archive

Stewardship, care and relational values

West., S., Haider, J.L., Masterson, V. et al. 2018. Stewardship, care and relational values. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. Available online 5 November 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.10.008

2019 - Journal / article

Stewardship is a popular term for describing action in pursuit of sustainability. There is growing interest in how relational values, such as care, animate stewardship action. In this paper we develop relational understandings of care in stewardship, in so doing infusing the relational values literature with modes of ‘relational thinking’ increasingly adopted in sustainability science. We use three theoretical perspectives — d...

The colour of maize: Visions of green growth and farmers perceptions in northern Laos

Kallio, M.H., Hogarth, N.J., Moeliono, M., Brockhaus, M., Cole, R., Bong, I.W., Wong, G.Y. 2019. The colour of maize: Visions of green growth and farmers perceptions in northern Laos. Land Use Policy, 80: 185-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.10.006.

2019 - Journal / article

The rapid expansion of hybrid maize in the uplands of northern Laos is viewed by the government as meeting policy aims related to green economic development. Yet, growing evidence of negative consequences of maize expansion are emerging. Based on farmers’ perceptions, we study: (1) farmers’ reasons for adopting and abandoning maize, and; (2) implications of commercial maize expansion on local livelihood security and inclusiven...

Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene

Steffen, W., Rockström, J., Richardson, K., Lenton, T.M. et.al. 2018. Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene. PNAS August 14, 2018 115 (33) 8252-8259. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810141115

2018 - Journal / article

We explore the risk that self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System toward a planetary threshold that, if crossed, could prevent stabilization of the climate at intermediate temperature rises and cause continued warming on a “Hothouse Earth” pathway even as human emissions are reduced. Crossing the threshold would lead to a much higher global average temperature than any interglacial in the past 1.2 million years a...

A thought experiment on sustainable management of the Earth system

Heitzig, J., Barfuss, W., Donges, J.F. 2018. A Thought Experiment on Sustainable Management of the Earth System. Sustainability, 10, 1947. DOI: 10.3390/su10061947

2018 - Journal / article

We introduce and analyze a simple formal thought experiment designed to reflect a qualitative decision dilemma humanity might currently face in view of anthropogenic climate change. In this exercise, each generation can choose between two options, either setting humanity on a pathway to certain high wellbeing after one generation of suffering, or leaving the next generation in the same state as the current one with the same op...

Achieving the 17 sustainable development goals within 9 planetary boundaries

Randers, Jorgen, Johan Rockström, Per E. Stoknes, Ulrich Goluke, David Collste, and Sarah Cornell. 2018. “Achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals Within 9 Planetary Boundaries.” EarthArXiv. October 16. doi:10.31223/osf.io/xwevb

2018 - Journal / article

We have built a simulation model (Earth3) to help answer two research questions: How many of the 17 UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) will be achieved by 2030? And: What will be the resulting pressure on 9 planetary boundaries (PBs)? Our tentative answer is that he world will not reach all SDGs by 2030, nor by 2050, and that the global safety margin (the buffer between the human impact and planetary boundaries) will cont...

Antibiotic and pesticide susceptibility and the Anthropocene operating space

Living with Resistance project. 2018. Antibiotic and pesticide susceptibility and the Anthropocene operating space, Nature Sustainability, doi: 10.1038/s41893-018-0164-3

2018 - Journal / article

Rising levels of antimicrobial and pesticide resistance increasingly undermine human health and systems for biomass production, and emphasize the sustainability challenge of preserving organisms susceptible to these biocides. In this Review, we introduce key concepts and examine dynamics of biocide susceptibility that must be governed to address this challenge. We focus on the impact of biocides on the capacity of susceptible ...

The Empirical Bases for the Earth3 Model: Technical Notes on the Sustainable Development Goals and Planetary Boundaries

D. Collste, J. Randers, U. Goluke, P.-E. Stoknes, S.E. Cornell, and J. Rockström. 2018. The Empirical Bases for the Earth3 Model: Technical Notes on the Sustainable Development Goals and Planetary Boundaries. EarthArXiv https://eartharxiv.org/ephsf/

2018 - Journal / article

Social-ecological drivers and impacts of invasion-related regime shifts: consequences for ecosystem services and human wellbeing

Shackleton R.T., R. Biggs, D.M Richardson, B.M.H., Larson. 2018. Social-ecological drivers and impacts of invasion-related regime shifts: consequences for ecosystem services and human wellbeing. Environmental Science & Policy 89: 300-314.

2018 - Journal / article

There are growing concerns that increasing global environmental pressures could lead to the exceedance of critical ecological thresholds that could trigger long-lasting regime shifts that will affect the structure and function of ecosystems and the broader social-ecological systems in which they are embedded. Biological invasions are a major driver of global change, and a number of invasive species alter key ecological feedbac...

Seeds of the future in the present: Exploring pathways for navigating towards “Good” Anthropocenes

Pereira L. E. Bennett, R. Biggs, G.D., Peterson, T., McPhearson, A., Norström, P. Olsson, R. Preiser, C. Raudsepp-Hearne, J. Vervoort. 2018. Seeds of the future in the present: Exploring pathways for navigating towards “Good” Anthropocenes. Chapter 16 (p327-350) in: Urban Planet: Knowledge Towards Sustainable Cities. Elmqvist T., X. Bai, N. Frantzeskaki, C. Griffith, D. Maddox, T. McPhearson, S. Parnell, P. Romero-Lankao, D. Simon, M. Watkins (eds). Cambridge University Press.

2018 - Book chapter

The rapid urbanization associated with the Anthropocene provides an imperative for humans to think diff erently about the future. The “seeds” approach describes how niche experiments can, over time, coalesce to shift the dominant regime onto a more sustainable trajectory. Urban transformations are complex phenomena; the seeds approach is a tool that can help us understand how transformations occur and how to nudge them towards...

Current and future interactions between nature and society

Biggs, R., Kizito, F., Adjonou, K., Ahmed, M. T., Blanchard, R., Coetzer, K., Handa, C. O., Dickens, C., Hamann, M., O'Farrell, P., Kellner, K., Reyers, B., Matose, F., Omar, K., Sonkoue, J-F., Terer, T, Vanhove, M., Sitas, N., Abrahams, B., Lazarova, T., and Pereira, L. Current and future interactions between nature and society. Chapter 5 (p413-479) in: The IPBES regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Africa. Archer, E. Dziba, L., Mulongoy, K. J., Maoela, M. A., and Walters, M. (eds.). Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem services, Bonn, Germany. Available at https://www.ipbes.net/system/tdf/ipbes_6_inf_3_rev.1_final.pdf?file=1&type=node&id=16516

2018 - Policy brief or report