This document discusses the importance of sustainability and science in achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It argues that science, especially earth science, is essential to meeting the SDGs but that the scientific community must improve communication, partnerships, and application of knowledge to non-scientific decision-makers. Achieving the integrated SDGs requires understanding complex human-environment interactions and tackling goals simultaneously rather than sequentially to avoid delaying environmental protection. The earth science community is well-positioned to contribute greatly due to its insights across goals like water, energy, cities, climate change, oceans, and land, but must transform to engage more directly with users and society.

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commentary
Rainfall is unevenly distributed throughout
the year, and occurs mostly in summer.
Furthermore, annual precipitation levels are
far exceeded by evaporation. Combined with
the increasing transpiration of soil water by
planted vegetation, particularly trees, this
imbalance already leads to soil drought in
surface layers. Instead of being expanded,
the existing vegetation needs to be thinned,
and (where appropriate) replaced with
native species that utilize less water.
Water resources
The wheat-producing region of the Yellow
River downstream from the Loess Plateau
provides food for about 400 million Chinese
people. Both the quantity and quality
of the water in the Yellow River affect
crops and thus directly influence national
food security. Over the past century, and
particularly since the late 1960s, annual
runoff from the Yellow River has declined11
.
About 80% of this decline has been
attributed to human activities, which include
the Grain for Green project, but also river
dam projects, terracing and other water
conservation practices; the rest is a result of
changes in precipitation12–13
.
The growing population and expansion
of industrial and agricultural activities along
the Yellow River will only lead to greater
demand for water.
Sustainable future
The Grain for Green project has successfully
returned the Yellow River’s sediment load
to historic levels. Instead of a further phase
of vegetation expansion, with sediment
declines beyond historical levels, now
is a good time to take stock of what has
been achieved.
We argue that it is key to ensure
that the achievements of the project so
far are maintained and directed into
sustainable future management. Vegetation
management needs to focus on reducing
uptake of limited soil water by vegetation.
Plants should be thinned regularly in high-
density areas, and species that need large
amounts of water should be replaced with
more suitable local species. Shortages of
farmland and food can be ameliorated
by the strategic creation of new farmland
and modernization of existing agriculture
facilities, while avoiding farmland expansion
through deforestation. We propose that
these strategies would together lead to
the sustainable development of the Yellow
River region. ❐
Yiping Chen, Kaibo Wang, Yishan Lin, Weiyu Shi
and Yi Song are at the State Key Laboratory of
Loess and Quaternary Geology and the Institute
of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of
Science, Xi’an 710075, China. Y.C. is also at the
State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processing
and Resource Ecology, Beijing 100875, China.
Xinhua He is in the School of Plant Biology,
University of Western Australia, Perth 6009,
Australia.
e-mail: Chenyp@ieecas.cn; xinhua.he@uwa.edu.au
References
1. Ren, M. E. Adv. Earth Sci. 21, 551–563 (2006).
2. McVicar, T. R. et al. Forest Ecol. Manag. 251, 65–81 (2007).
3. Yellow River Sediment Bulletin 7 (Yellow River Conservancy
Commission, Ministry of Water Resources, 2013);
http://www.yellowriver.gov.cn/nishagonggao/2013/index.html
4. National Development and Reform Commission spokesperson
answer to reporters’ request on launching a new round of Green
for Grain. Xinhuanet.com (27 September 2014); http://news.
xinhuanet.com/politics/2014-09/27/c_1112652394.htm
5. Tang, K. L., Zhang, K. L. Lei, A. L. Chinese Sci. Bull.
43, 409–412 (1998).
6. Lü, Y. et al. PLoS ONE 7, e31782 (2012).
7. Feng, Z. M., Yang, Y. Z. Zhang, Y. Q. Land Use Policy
22, 301–312 (2005).
8. Liu, Q., Wang, Y. Q., Zhang, J. Chen, Y. P. Environ. Sci. Technol.
47, 7589–7590 (2013).
9. Wang, Y. Q., Shao, M. A., Zhu, Y. J. Liu, Z. P.
Agr. Forest Meteorol. 151, 437–448 (2011).
10. McVicar, T. R. Forest Ecol. Manag. 259, 1277–1290 (2010).
11. Li, E. H., Mu, X. M. Zhao, G. J. Adv. Wat. Sci. 2, 155–163 (2014).
12. Wang, Y., Ding, Y., Ye, B., Liu, F. Wang, J. Sci. China Earth. Sci.
56, 1398–1412 (2013).
13. Xu, J. X. Hydrol. Sci. J. 58, 106–117 (2013).
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by State Key Laboratory of Loess
and Quaternary Geology fund.
Published online: 7 September 2015
Sustainability rooted in science
Jane Lubchenco, Allison K. Barner, Elizabeth B. Cerny-Chipman and Jessica N. Reimer
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals emphasize the importance of evidence-based
decision-making. This is a clarion call for Earth scientists to contribute directly to the health, prosperity
and well-being of all people.
T
hrough the United Nations, the
international policy community
has taken bold action to chart a
new course for people and the planet by
identifying 17 Sustainable Development
Goals1
(SDGs), focused on society’s most
urgent needs (Table 1). These SDGs and
the accompanying 169 targets1
define the
overarching agenda for international and
national action for the coming 15 years.
Achievement of the SDGs will be difficult,
and scientific knowledge is urgently needed
to guide, measure, monitor and attain
these goals.
Some of the science required is already
available or research is underway. However,
scientific business-as-usual will fall far short.
Scientists must share what is already known
more broadly, accelerate the discovery
of relevant knowledge, devise useable
indicators of progress, engage directly with
users of information and knowledge, and
embrace both transdisciplinary approaches,
especially with social scientists, and non-
traditional partnerships (with civil society or
with industry, for example) to guide action2
.
Earth scientists must also hone skills
for communicating with non-scientists,
empower young scientists, expand efforts
to grow scientific capacity globally, and act
to change the culture of institutions that
do not value and reward these activities. In
short, the Earth science community is being
challenged to transform itself and deliver
on its social contract with society3
. The
geosciences are absolutely essential to the
success of the SDGs, and Earth scientists are
needed now more than ever before.
Equitable use of the planet
The SDGs tackle the challenge of meeting
current needs of people around the world
and enabling development. At the same
time, they address the need to safeguard
Earth’s life support systems on which the
welfare of current and future generations
depends. These challenges need to be met
in an equitable fashion and in light of the
© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

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commentary
massive environmental changes already
underway in the Anthropocene4
. In short,
the challenge is how to use the planet’s
resources fairly without using them up.
Society’s current appetite for goods and
generation of waste are unsustainable. In
the face of this, the daunting task will be to
alleviate poverty, provide basic necessities,
allow smart development, and reduce
vulnerability to disasters while also tackling
climate change, ecosystem disruption and
depletion, loss of biodiversity, and pollution
from nutrients, plastics and chemicals.
The Earth sciences in particular are
directly relevant to many of the SDGs: for
example, goals focused on water, energy,
resilient infrastructure and sustainable
industrialization, safe and resilient cities and
settlements, climate change, the ocean, and
the land (Goals 6,7,9,11,13–15). Geoscience
insights are also directly or indirectly needed
for multiple other SDGs, to alleviate poverty
and provide food security, for example.
To achieve the SDGs we can draw on
lessons learned from the Millennium
Development Goals, the SDG’s predecessor
as a UN-promoted international set of
targets for a sustainable and equitable
future. One such lesson was the importance
of tackling all goals simultaneously, not
sequentially. In particular, it is important not
to delay consideration of the environment
while more socially urgent goals
demand attention.
As emphasized in the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment5
and elsewhere6
,
the environment is a key pathway to
achieving many SDGs, such as food or
water security, alleviation of poverity and
development of communities that are more
resilient to disasters. Incorporating systems
perspectives7
, and natural capital and
ecosystem service concepts8
provide useful
frameworks and methodologies for assessing
trade-offs and synergies between different
SDGs and targets.
Thanks to experiences from the
Millennium Development Goals, SDG
documents repeatedly emphasize that the
17 goals are ‘integrated and indivisible’.
Science can help achieve the integration
needed across the SDGs. For example,
research on ocean acidification can
contribute to multiple social, environmental
and economic goals (Box 1).
The Earth science community
understands many of the interrelationships
across the goals and can assist with
identifying indicators of progress that bolster
the connectedness across goals and targets.
But to be effective, they must connect with
other sciences and with society. Pairing
natural and social sciences, for example,
can provide understanding of how coupled
human–natural systems work and are
changing, what the probable consequences
of different policy or management choices
might be, and which solutions might achieve
the desired outcomes. Scientists can work
to devise solutions and new technologies,
propose indicators, monitor progress, and
standardize and verify data9,10
.
Human and natural systems are
intimately interconnected, and the study
of both must be integrated to understand
constraints and opportunities as we
progress towards the SDGs. Thus, Earth and
environmental scientists are poised to have
a large impact on the achievement of the
SDGs: they study the natural world, whose
health is critical for the health and well-
being of global human populations.
But a stronger focus is required, from
individuals as well as institutions, on
tackling problems that are relevant to
societal needs, and on communicating
insights to a broad range of audiences.
Below we discuss how scientists may
contribute to the achievement of the
SDGs by leveraging existing science and
research agendas to accomplish these goals
through engagement and collaboration,
developing new knowledge specific to
the SDGs and their targets, building an
equitable, collaborative and interdisciplinary
environment for scholarship, and
supporting other scientists who focus on
sustainability research.
Share what is already known
Earth scientists already conduct research that
is relevant and critical for achieving the SDGs,
in areas as diverse as water management,
sustainable energy, materials science, resource
extraction, climate change, disaster risk
vulnerability and reduction, and conservation
and sustainable use of the ocean and the
land. However, knowledge generated by the
research community is often not accessible
or understandable to potential users from
policymakers to resource managers or society
more broadly. The urgency of the SDGs
makes it imperative that scientists escalate
efforts to transfer knowledge to users.
One vehicle for disseminating
existing scientific knowledge is through
formal scientific assessments. The Earth
science community already participates
actively in some assessments such as the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. Additional intergovernmental
assessments have recently been created
to help provide input in parallel arenas,
from the World Ocean Assessment
(http://www.worldoceanassessment.org)
to the Intergovernmental Platform on
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
(http://www.ipbes.net). A persistent
Table 1 | The UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Goal Description
1 End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6 Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7 Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8 Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment
and decent work for all
9 Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster
innovation
10 Reduce inequality within and among countries
11 Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*
14 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage
forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16 Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice
for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17 Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable
development
*Acknowledging that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for
negotiating the global response to climate change.
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commentary
challenge with many of these is adequate
funding to support scientists’ participation.
Countries with expertise to share should
do more to facilitate engagement by their
scientists in international programmes.
Other means of providing actionable,
sustainability-relevant knowledge to users
are proliferating. Professional scientific
societies such as the American Geophysical
Union are seizing opportunities to
facilitate knowledge transfer, for example
through their Thriving Earth Exchange
(http://thrivingearthexchange.org), which
is designed to connect scientists with local
communities to solve local problems.
But wherever they are, scientists can
share science more broadly though writing
and speaking in ways that are friendly to
lay audiences, through social media, and by
targeting local to global audiences.
Sweet spot for science
The Earth science community is needed
to engage with society and generate new
knowledge that is immediately relevant to
achieving the SDGs. Such ‘use-inspired
research’11
— fundamental, cutting-edge
science that is also immediately pertinent
to societal needs3,12
— is the sweet spot for
SDG science. In particular, science that
generates not only knowledge, but also real
solutions to problems is desirable. Moreover,
solutions need to be able to be deployed at
a scale sufficient to address the problem,
not just in a few locations. Understanding
the importance of this kind of research, the
International Council for Science created
Future Earth (http://www.futureearth.org),
an international research platform to
pursue, synthesize and connect the
scientific and traditional knowledge
needed to accelerate the transformation
to a sustainable world. In parallel, the
Sustainable Development Solutions Network
(http://unsdsn.org) is designed to assist
the UN and member countries achieve the
SDGs by promoting practical solutions for
sustainable development.
In addition to formal programmes such
as these, smaller teams are needed to tackle
specific problems in innovative ways, to
engage users from the outset to ensure
relevance, credibility and utility and bring
together the full range of relevant science.
There are many new boundary efforts,
such as the Science for Nature and People
programme (http://www.snap.is), which
sponsors working groups on diverse topics
ranging from fracking to coastal defenses,
data-limited fisheries, land-use decisions,
drought and aquaculture.
Box 1 | Benefits from ocean acidification research.
ENRICSALA/NATIONALGEOGRAPHICSOCIETY
Target 3 of Goal 14 aims to “minimize
and address the impacts of ocean
acidification, including through enhanced
scientific cooperation at all levels”1
.
To achieve this target, basic research
is needed to understand the dynamics
of ocean acidification and its impacts
on biogeochemical processes and
biological systems.
To minimize and address these impacts
will require cross-sectoral collaborations
between climatologists, oceanographers,
biogeochemists, ecologists, social scientists,
and economists to develop and implement
geo-informed strategies for adaptation to
and mitigation of ocean acidification.
For example, one approach to protect
vulnerable coral reefs (see photo) might
entail placing fully protected marine
reserves in biogeographic regions that
are (or are predicted to be) less affected
by ocean acidification. Designing such
a marine reserve would require a range
of expertise from different disciplines,
including downscaling predictions of
ocean acidification intensity from global
climate change models, quantification
of local biogeochemical and ecological
resilience, bioeconomic input to the design
and placement of the marine reserve,
and cooperation with local stakeholders
and policymakers.
Additional ancillary benefits to such an
effort might enhance achievement of other
targets such as those described below.
• Food security: if the stability of marine
food webs is maintained, this will
benefit harvested species that represent
critical food resources for coastal
populations (Targets 2.3 and 2.4).
• Sustainable tourism: mitigation of
ocean acidification to preserve marine
ecosystems, such as coral reefs and kelp
forests, will be an important step in the
development of sustainable tourism
ventures (Target 8.9).
• Biodiversity: understanding the
dynamics of ocean acidification and its
impacts on ecosystems can improve the
ability to recognize tipping points and
regime shifts, which will be critical for
conservation (Target 15.5).
• Population resilience: minimizing the
effects of ocean acidification on the
provision of ecosystem services will
improve the resilience of vulnerable
human populations to extreme climatic
events (Target 1.5).
• Education: investment in local scientific
research and infrastructure can forward
targets related to the education of
youth, women, and those in developing
nations (Goal 4).
In this way, multiple research avenues to
contribute to a single SDG target cascade
into manifold implications for connected
goals. Scientists thus can have a broad
impact on sustainable development beyond
their immediate research expertise.
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Three important, progressive
characteristics make programmes like this a
showcase for societally relevant sustainability:
users are engaged at the outset and scientists
do not assume they know what users want
and need; transdisciplinary teams integrate
the relevant natural and social sciences; and
the programme works with civil society as
well as industry where relevant. The benefits
of such multidimensional approaches are
highlighted in Box 2 with a focus on fisheries,
a renewable natural resource that is key to
future food security, alleviation of poverty
and new economic opportunities for many
nations. National and international funders
need to support innovative efforts like these
in a more forceful fashion.
Grow and spread capacity
How research is conducted matters as much
as what research is done. Scientists can
directly contribute to many of the social goals
of the SDGs through inclusive and equitable
scholarship practices, and engagement
with users of knowledge, with attention to
capacity-building in developing countries.
Academic researchers can redouble their
efforts to focus on more inclusive education.
Part of achieving inclusive and equitable
quality education (Goal 4) means addressing
implicit, explicit, and structural barriers to
participation in science by underrepresented
groups. Academic scientists can implement
such practices in their teaching of
undergraduate students and mentoring of
graduate students and post-doctoral scholars.
Further, if education is a means by which to
achieve the goal of sustainable development
(Target 4.7), scientists can educate not only
scientists-in-training, but also promote
equitable and science-based lifelong learning.
Training tomorrow’s business leaders,
politicians and managers is as important
as educating future scientists. In addition,
increasing participation of underrepresented
groups in science contributes directly
to more diverse representation and
participation in decision-making and
governance (Targets 10.6, 16.6 and 16.7).
To use scientific information in policy,
management or business, decision makers
must see that scientific information is useful
and relevant and have confidence in the
science and its sources. The SDGs articulate
the importance of evidence-based decision-
making (Targets 1.b, 8.9, 11.b, 12.a, 12.b and
14.3–14.5), but attention is needed to enable
decision makers to be comfortable with and
use scientific knowledge. Doing so requires
engaging them early on and often, listening
to their needs, establishing relationships that
engender trust, and providing information
that is understandable and relevant.
In some places, for science to be used
in policy-making, significantly greater
capacity to generate and appropriately use
relevant knowledge is needed, especially
in least developed countries, but also in
middle-income countries. Often, general
information needs to be tailored to specific
conditions on the ground. One of the urgent
needs of the SDGs is growing support
for and the capacity to produce and use
evidence-based information.
Local leaders, policymakers, managers
and decision makers all need to be open to
using scientific information and consider
it salient to their problems. Mechanisms
to incorporate traditional knowledge and
knowledge exchanges among communities
or countries with similar experiences and
interests can be useful, moving toward
explicitly reciprocal engagement, and away
from a North–South knowledge transfer
paradigm13
(Targets 17.6–17.8). Hence, efforts
by the international scientific community
to contribute to growing this international
capacity are of paramount importance.
Incentives for scientists
Investment in engagement with society will
require not only the buy-in of scientists,
but also the support of their colleagues and
institutions. Despite the critical need for
scientific guidance and expertise in SDG
progress, the current academic incentive
structure often acts as an impediment for
scientists to engage. Decisions regarding
tenure and promotion are structured to
reward traditional scholarly endeavours
such as research, publication and
teaching without adequately accounting
Box 2 | Fish smarter, not harder.
Partial progress has been made towards
sustainable fisheries in the past decade
and a half. For example, the US has
achieved remarkable turnaround in their
fisheries14
. From 2000 to 2014, the number
of overexploited stocks dropped from 92 to
37 and the number of rebuilt populations
increased from 0 to 37. Moreover, in recent
years, 23% more jobs have been created
in commercial fishing, revenues are up
by 30% and unwanted ‘bycatch’ of target
species has plummeted14
. Interdisciplinary
collaborations between ecologists, fishery
scientists and economists from academia,
government and civil society have led to
novel solutions to address the root causes
of overfishing. Smarter fishing has resulted
in impressive results with social, economic
and environmental benefits.
From this example, we can learn how
transdisciplinary scientific research and
non-traditional partnerships can shape
policies and practices for renewable
resources that are immediately relevant to
multiple SDGs.
Marine fisheries globally provide
approximately 260 million jobs, add more
than US$270 billion to global GDP and
provide 4.3 billion people with nutritious
sources of protein14–17
. Industrial-scale
fisheries are becoming more sustainable,
but small-scale fisheries, mostly in
developing countries, are declining and
generally in poor condition. Sustainable
fisheries are thus urgently needed to
contribute to relieve poverty and deliver
food security, healthy lives, economic
growth and decent work, sustainable
consumption and sustainable use of the
ocean (Goals 1–3, 8, 12, 14).
To achieve sustainable fisheries,
innovative partnerships among managers,
policymakers, fishers, civil society, other
ocean stakeholders, and scientists are
required to address existing perverse
incentives, weak laws, poor enforcement,
unreported catches, and widespread
poaching. Reforms must also incentivize
and empower fishers to be good stewards of
the ocean.
Policy reforms will require science,
in the form of a better understanding of
physical, chemical and ecological changes
underway in the ocean. Research will be
essential for determining and addressing
how these changes are likely to affect
fisheries. In addition, insights from
economic and social science can provide
understanding of the coupled human–
natural system that fishing represents, as
well as its links to other ocean uses such as
aquaculture and renewable energy.
Core elements of a successful strategy
should include strong commitment
and engagement by fishers, scientists,
policymakers and civil society; firm
policy mandates to end overfishing; a
clear role for and process to use scientific
information (for example, regarding
sustainable catch levels and the impacts of
climate change and ocean acidification on
fish stocks); strong attention to aligning
economic and environmental incentives,
that is, to incentivize fishermen to be
good stewards.
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5. NATURE GEOSCIENCE | VOL 8 | OCTOBER 2015 | www.nature.com/naturegeoscience 745
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for engagement with the public and
policymakers or participation in assessments
and transdisciplinary research efforts.
Institutions that recognize the
importance of these new ways of doing
science will be better positioned to attract
and retain cutting-edge scientists who are
serving society in immediate, tangible ways.
An academic culture that embraces and
supports the full spectrum of research —
starting from basic research, including
use-inspired science and proceeding all the
way to applied research — is sorely needed.
Likewise, supporting transdisciplinary
science in addition to more traditional
approaches will draw talented students and
funding, deliver useful knowledge to society,
and enrich science. These cultural changes
need to be addressed at the institutional
level to form a strong scientific backbone for
progress towards the SDGs.
Earth scientists have great potential to
contribute to the SDGs in myriad ways. We
have outlined just a few possible routes: they
can link existing knowledge and research
to the SDGs, deliver new actionable and
transdisciplinary research, expand capacity
building, and engage with society and
policymakers. We invite all scientists to take
up this challenge, and make the world a
better place. ❐
Jane Lubchenco, Allison K. Barner,
Elizabeth B. Cerny-Chipman and Jessica N. Reimer
are at the Department of Integrative Biology,
Cordley 3029, Oregon State University, Corvallis,
Oregon 97331-2914, USA.
e-mail: lubchenco@oregonstate.edu
References
1. Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development Annex A/69/L.85 (United Nations; 2015);
http://go.nature.com/qcryu5
Sustainable early-career
networks
Florian Rauser, Vera Schemann and Sebastian Sonntag
A truly global science community for the next generation of researchers will be essential if we are to
tackle Earth system sustainability. Top-down support from funders should meet bottom-up initiatives —
at a pace fast enough to meet that of early-career progress.
T
he importance of early-career
networks has been declared to be high
on the agenda of every significant
funding agency and science coordination
programme around the globe. Yet most
existing initiatives for young scientists are
limited in scope or reside within specific
organisations, such as the American and
European Geophysical Unions, the Future
Earth programme or the World Climate
Research Programme — and are thereby
unwittingly splitting the field either
geographically or by subject area (or both).
However, the most pressing challenges
for humanity span the entire Earth, and a
multitude of scientific disciplines.
To address Earth system science
questions of the future, including those
related to sustainable development, we need
a global network of young scientists that
covers all areas of the Earth system sciences
and beyond. Such a network could support
North–South interactions, interdisciplinary
exchange with the social sciences and
humanities, and career development, but
only if it receives a basic level of secure
funding for the foreseeable future.
Mismatch of systems
In response to the lack of a global,
pan-organisational network for
young geoscience researchers, we
founded the Young Earth System
Scientists (YESS) community
(http://www.yess-community.org) as
an independent bottom-up network for
researchers in the Earth system sciences. It
is open to anyone who researches processes
and effects that influence the interaction
between Earth and society: we believe that
the challenges of a sustainable Earth require
understanding of the full system of natural
and human processes that defines the
Earth system — and thus require a breadth
and interdisciplinarity that goes beyond
traditional subject area boundaries.
In the past five years, the YESS
community has grown from a local
incubator in Germany to a global body
with members in all continents. We
have received flexible financial support
from local partners, such as the Koerber
Foundation and the Max Planck Institute
for Meteorology, for special events or
meetings, but we have operated so far
without fixed institutional dependencies. We
developed this community in a laborious
and sometimes painful bottom-up process
in order to establish an active global network
for early-career scientists. In doing so,
we also aimed to overcome ambivalent
or competing relationships between
the early-career branches of different
organisations that had been mapped down
from the senior level: segregation of early-
career communities is endemic among
top-down approaches.
Despite some success and the tremendous
growth of the Young Earth System Scientists
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Published online: 21 September 2015
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