Ecology went global in the past 25 years, growing not only in capacity to explore and understand the planet as a whole but also in encompassing as part of its mission the major challenges society faces in learning to live sustainably. Now we need to go mainstream. This hinges on our daring to reach out even more and forge bold new partnerships with leaders in the business community and many other walks of life. Alone we will get nowhere, but together we have a chance at creating and deploying powerful approaches that make conservation attractive and commonplace around the world.

Gretchen Daily,
Director, Tropical Research Program,
Center for Conservation Biology, Stanford University

I was happy to be part of a Discover magazine cover story in October 1988 with a prescient message: Humans are modifying the

composition of the atmosphere and the character of the land surface, and the net effect of these disturbances will be global warming.

While this forecast was scientifically controversial at the time, nature has since cooperated with the theory. Data now indicate that the
last three decades of the 20th century were unprecedentedly warm. This bolsters the mainstream scientific conclusion in 1995 that is
indeed a “discernible human influence on global climate.” That statement of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was the
intellectual force behind the Kyoto Protocol, which commits 141 nations—with the notable exception of the United States and Austra-
lia—to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the next few years.
Stephen Schneider, CoDirector, Center for Environmental Science and Policy, Stanford University



The discovery of the Antarctic Ozone Hole was the most important development in environmental science in the past 25 years. It triggered a rapid response on the part of the global community to phase out chlorofluorocarbons, the main chemicals causing severe ozone depletion each Antarctic spring.In the next 25 years, it will be critical for us to gain a better understanding of how the genetic structures of organisms are intimately related to the structures of the ecosystems in which they live. For example, we really know very little about the specific effects that introducing strange genes into corn will have on the environment and how that changed environment will ultimately affect, through evolution and adaptation, everything that lives in it, including ourselves.
Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research


To view last month's think tank article, click here.

To view all think tank article, click here.