Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts

Connecting human behaviour, meaning and nature

Much of the discourse around climate change and the situation of diverse human societies and cultures in the Anthropocene focuses on responding to scientific understanding of the dynamics of the biosphere by adjusting existing institutional and organizational structures. Our emerging scientific understanding of human behaviour and the mechanisms that enable groups to achieve large-scale coordination and cooperation suggests that incrementally adjusting existing institutions and organizations will not be sufficient to confront current global-scale challenges. Specifically, the transaction costs of operating institutions to induce selfish rational actors to consider social welfare in their decision-making are too high. Rather, we highlight the importance of networks of shared stories that become real-imagined orders-that create context, meaning and shared purpose for framing decisions and guiding action. We explore imagined orders that have contributed to bringing global societies to where they are and propose elements of a science-informed imagined order essential to enabling societies to flourish in the Anthropocene biosphere. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bringing nature into decision-making'.

The planetary commons: A new paradigm for safeguarding Earth-regulating systems in the Anthropocene

The Anthropocene signifies the start of a no-analogue trajectory of the Earth system that is fundamentally different from the Holocene. This new trajectory is characterized by rising risks of triggering irreversible and unmanageable shifts in Earth system functioning. We urgently need a new global approach to safeguard critical Earth system regulating functions more effectively and comprehensively. The global commons framework is the closest example of an existing approach with the aim of governing biophysical systems on Earth upon which the world collectively depends. Derived during stable Holocene conditions, the global commons framework must now evolve in the light of new Anthropocene dynamics. This requires a fundamental shift from a focus only on governing shared resources beyond national jurisdiction, to one that secures critical functions of the Earth system irrespective of national boundaries. We propose a new framework-the planetary commons-which differs from the global commons framework by including not only globally shared geographic regions but also critical biophysical systems that regulate the resilience and state, and therefore livability, on Earth. The new planetary commons should articulate and create comprehensive stewardship obligations through Earth system governance aimed at restoring and strengthening planetary resilience and justice.

Characteristic processes of human evolution caused the Anthropocene and may obstruct its global solutions

We propose that the global environmental crises of the Anthropocene are the outcome of a ratcheting process in long-term human evolution which has favoured groups of increased size and greater environmental exploitation. To explore this hypothesis, we review the changes in the human ecological niche. Evidence indicates the growth of the human niche has been facilitated by group-level cultural traits for environmental control. Following this logic, sustaining the biosphere under intense human use will probably require global cultural traits, including legal and technical systems. We investigate the conditions for the evolution of global cultural traits. We estimate that our species does not exhibit adequate population structure to evolve these traits. Our analysis suggests that characteristic patterns of human group-level cultural evolution created the Anthropocene and will work against global collective solutions to the environmental challenges it poses. We illustrate the implications of this theory with alternative evolutionary paths for humanity. We conclude that our species must alter longstanding patterns of cultural evolution to avoid environmental disaster and escalating between-group competition. We propose an applied research and policy programme with the goal of avoiding these outcomes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'.

Perceptions of environmental problems and solutions in Florida across sectors: A survey of key stakeholders and the public

We build on environmental attitude research to provide a foundation for considering policies making economic and environmental trade-offs. We conducted a large online survey of Florida public attitudes (n = 829), a state grappling with trade-offs between economic development and environmental quality. Findings provide the first baseline understanding of Floridian perceptions of relationships between key economic drivers and the environment. Environmental problems were generally considered important and pro-environmental policy options are highly supported. The environment was considered more important to Florida's culture and future than key industries, with only tourism considered more important to the economy. Development was considered least important. Individual differences, including gender, political party, and industry affiliation, predicted policy support and attitudes toward trade-offs. Modeled together, attitudes toward government involvement and the importance of the environment to Florida predicted additional variance in policy support. Results highlight the intersection of social identities and ideological attitudes in shaping environmental policy attitudes.

Transformative potential of conservation actions

Transformative change can help achieve the 2050 vision of biodiversity, but concrete ways to achieve it are only being discovered. To contribute to the understanding of the practical options for concrete action to foster, accelerate and maintain the transformative change, we assessed the leverage potential of existing conservation actions using the Meadows' Leverage points framework. We took the actions from the Conservation Actions Classification by the Conservation Measures Partnership. The outcome is a scheme that evaluates at which leverage points, from simple parameters to paradigms, the different conservation actions have potential to make an impact, and thus impact systemic change. We found that all conservation actions have potential to leverage systemic transformative change, with varying coverage of the leverage points. All leverage points were addressed by several actions. The scheme could be used both as an interim tool for evaluating transformative potential in different broad datasets, but also help with planning of new conservation policies, interventions and projects. We hope our work could be a first step toward standardization and broader adoption of assessing leverage in conservation research and practice, achieving broader socio-ecological system leverage with conservation tools.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10531-023-02600-3.

Earth Systems to Anthropocene Systems: An Evolutionary, System-of-Systems, Convergence Paradigm for Interdependent Societal Challenges

Humans have made profound changes to the Earth. The resulting societal challenges of the Anthropocene (e.g., climate change and impacts, renewable energy, adaptive infrastructure, disasters, pandemics, food insecurity, and biodiversity loss) are complex and systemic, with causes, interactions, and consequences that cascade across a globally connected system of systems. In this Critical Review, we turn to our "origin story" for insight, briefly tracing the formation of the Universe and the Earth, the emergence of life, the evolution of multicellular organisms, mammals, primates, and humans, as well as the more recent societal transitions involving agriculture, urbanization, industrialization, and computerization. Focusing on the evolution of the Earth, genetic evolution, the evolution of the brain, and cultural evolution, which includes technological evolution, we identify a nested evolutionary sequence of geophysical, biophysical, sociocultural, and sociotechnical systems, emphasizing the causal mechanisms that first formed, and then transformed, Earth systems into Anthropocene systems. Describing how the Anthropocene systems coevolved, and briefly illustrating how the ensuing societal challenges became tightly integrated across multiple spatial, temporal, and organizational scales, we conclude by proposing an evolutionary, system-of-systems, convergence paradigm for the entire family of interdependent societal challenges of the Anthropocene.

Microeconomic adaptation to severe climate disturbances on Australian coral reefs

Coral reefs are increasingly affected by climate-induced disturbances that are magnified by increasing ocean temperatures. Loss of coral reefs strongly affects people whose livelihoods and wellbeing depend on the ecosystem services reefs provide. Yet the effects of coral loss and the capacity of people and businesses to adapt to it are poorly understood, particularly in the private sector. To address this gap, we surveyed about half (57 of 109) of Australian reef tourism operators to understand how they were affected by and responded to severe impacts from bleaching and cyclones. Reef restoration and spatial diversification were the primary responses to severe bleaching impacts, while for cyclone-impacts coping measures and product diversification were more important. Restoration responses were strongly linked to the severity of impacts. Our findings provide empirical support for the importance of response diversity, spatial heterogeneity, and learning for social-ecological resilience.

Responsible sourcing for energy transitions: Discussing academic narratives of responsible sourcing through the lens of natural resources justice

The Paris Agreement and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals clearly demonstrate the need for global energy transitions. Evolving energy generation and the expansion of the renewable energy capacity and associated infrastructure contribute to changing and increasing demands for minerals and metals. The potential negative environmental, social and economic impacts of increased mineral resource production have been contested and are under increasing scrutiny by both academia and civil society. Responsible Sourcing (RS) has become a management approach for companies and policymakers to identify, monitor and address potential negative impacts along their raw materials' supply chains. Although RS might contribute to sustainability along the supply chain, this paper raises the question of whether it also contributes to Natural Resource Justice (NRJ) in energy transitions. Based on a bibliometric network analysis, this study investigated current narratives of RS literature and to what degree core aspects of NRJ (e.g., distribution of benefits and burdens, power asymmetries, property rights) are reflected in the RS debate following a deductive approach. The results obtained show that compared with other sectors (e.g., timber, food, biomass, textiles) debates on RS in renewable energy-related sectors are still scarce and fragmented. The analysis indicates that different foci are aligned with one or more of the traditional three sustainability dimensions (i.e., environmental, social, economic), while few addressed aspects of NRJ. The authors observed a distinct lack of holistic justice considerations in the current RS debate and only a few individual issues are discussed, such as the detection of burden shifting, accountability for supplier behavior, and sharing of financial benefits. This research contributes to the understanding of different RS approaches and extends the RS discussion to NRJ considerations in energy transitions. It also points out important paths for future research to contribute to just energy transitions.