Research on the Scientific Basis for Sustainability Summary Report

• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: What is Sustainability?
  • 1-1: Sustainability: Defining The Word
  • 1-2 The Scientist's Perspective: The Natural Step's Four System Conditions
  • 1-3 The Economist's Perspective: Herman Daly's 3 Rules
  • 1-4 Sustainability - What is the Timeframe?
  • 1-5 Global Population Growth
  • 1-6 Resource Consumption
  • 1-7 Economic Growth: A Solution to Poverty?
  • 1-8 Decoupling Economic Growth from Environmental Impact
  • 1-9 Sustainability: A Common Goal for Humanity
• Chapter 2: Five Aspects of Sustainability
  • Part 2-1. The Climate System
    • 2-1-1 The "Discovery" of Climate Change
    • 2-1-2 IPCC: Consensus and Criticism
    • 2-1-3 Society's Reaction to Climate Change
  • Part 2. Energy
    • 2-2-1 Global Energy Consumption
    • 2-2-2 Energy Consumption in Japan
    • 2-2-3 The Potential in Fossil Fuels
    • 2-2-4 Non-Conventional Oil
    • 2-2-5 The Future of Fossil Fuel
    • 2-2-6 Nuclear, Renewable, and Future Energy Sources
    • 2-2-7 Energy System Innovation
  • Part 3. Resources and Waste
    • Resources and Waste
    • 2-3-1 World Resource Consumption and Waste Generation
    • 2-3-2 Will Resource Depletion Occur?
    • 2-3-3 Resource Conservation and 3R Initiatives
    • 2-3-4 Waste Generation and Recycling Activities
    • 2-3-5 Management of Hazardous Materials
    • 2-3-6 Establishing a Closed Loop Resource Society
  • Part 4. Food and Water
    • 2-4-1 Will There Be a Large-scale Food Crisis?
    • 2-4-2 Grain Production and Consumption
    • 2-4-3 Seafood Production and Consumption
    • 2-4-4 Livestock Production and Consumption
    • 2-4-5 The Future of Water
    • 2-4-6 Growing Water Stress
    • 2-4-7 Irrigation and Groundwater
    • 2-4-8 Providing Clean Water
    • 2-4-9 How Can We Enable Increased Food Production?
  • Part 5. Biodiversity
    • 2-5-1 What is Biodiversity?
    • 2-5-2 The State of Species Extinction
    • 2-5-3 Assessing the State of Biodiversity
    • 2-5-4 Ecosystem Services: A New Concept
    • 2-5-5 Biodiversity: A Social Asset
• Chapter 3: Ecosystem Services: Supporting Human Activity
  • 3-1 What is the Value of Ecosystem Services?
  • 3-2 The Intrinsic Value of Nature
  • 3-3 Monetary Evaluation of Ecosystem Services
  • 3-4 Pros and Cons of Monetary Evaluation
  • 3-5 The Interdependence between Ecosystem Services and Our Economy
• Chapter 4: Environmental Impact Assessment
  • Environmental Impact Assessment
  • 4-1 How is Environmental Impact Assessed?
  • 4-2 Is Economic Valuation of Environmental Impact Possible?
  • 4-3 The Significance of Environmental Impact Assessment
• Chapter 5: Are We Living Beyond Earth's Capacity?
  • 5-1 Three Conclusions about Environmental Sustainability
  • 5-2 What Actions Should We Take?
  • 5-3 Will Humanity Face the "Limits to Growth"?
  • 5-4 Criticisms of "Limits to Growth"
  • 5-5 Can the Earth's Capacity be Measured?
  • 5-6 How the Ecological Footprint is Calculated
  • 5-7 Measuring Humanity's Total Ecological Footprint.
  • 5-8 Criticisms of the Ecological Footprint
  • 5-9 Making the Transition to a Sustainable Society