Life Sciences Commons^™

Toward An Integrated History To Guide The Future, Sander Van Der Leeuw, Robert Costanza, Steve Aulenbach, Simon Brewer, Michael Burek, Sarah Cornell, Carole L. Crumley, J. A. Dearing, Catherine Downy, Lisa J. Graumlich, Scott Heckbert, Michelle Hegmon, Kathy A. Hibbard, Stephen T. Jackson, Ida Kubiszewski, Paul Sinclair, Sverker Sörlin, W. L. Steffen

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Many contemporary societal challenges manifest themselves in the domain of human?environment interactions. There is a growing recognition that responses to these challenges formulated within current disciplinary boundaries, in isolation from their wider contexts, cannot adequately address them. Here, we outline the need for an integrated, transdisciplinary synthesis that allows for a holistic approach, and, above all, a much longer time perspective. We outline both the need for and the fundamental characteristics of what we call ?integrated history.? This approach promises to yield new understandings of the relationship between the past, present, and possible futures of our integrated human?environment system. We …