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Associated Emerging Topics:
3.1Decarbonisation
The reports of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) make clear that climate change is primarily driven by increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, a direct result of anthropogenic activity, which is primarily related to the combustion of fossil fuels for energy production. The consequences of this activity on our habitable environment are serious, and include desertification, melting glaciers, ocean acidification, rising sea levels and water shortages. Thus, implementing a global strategy to curb CO2 levels is an urgent task.
3.2World Simulation
Humans exist embedded in complex “social-ecological systems” that are composed of interconnected physical, biological, and socio-economic systems. Understanding social-ecological systems (SESs) relies on integrating knowledge of the underlying disciplines, and the way that they interrelate. Holistic transdisciplinary understanding is vital to addressing the grand challenges and "wicked problems" facing society in the 21st century, such as those related to climate change, growth in the human population and disruptions to the global economy. Yet society lacks the capacity to measure and predict the relevant interconnections that would facilitate evidence-based policymaking and resource management, whether in urban planning or nature conservation.
3.3Future Food Systems
Food is fundamental to our existence, and the challenge before us is to build a resilient, sustainable system able to produce and distribute sufficient nutrition for a growing global population. By 2050 our planet will be home to around 10 billion people whose environment is increasingly affected by the vicissitudes of climate change. This task is complex and multifaceted at every level, and differs according to geography, socioeconomics, politics, and access to technology. It will take a multitude of approaches and technologies to meet this challenge.
3.4Space Resources
Humans already depend on and utilise off-world resources. Almost all of our energy ultimately comes from the Sun, and we are protected from dangerous radiation by the magnetosphere that encircles our planet. The region just beyond our atmosphere has become a resource for communication, observation and exploration. But our ambition, as well as our requirement for resources, is greater still.
3.5Ocean Stewardship
The ocean is central to the existence of life on Earth. However, human activity is putting increasing strain on the ocean, directly through activities such as overfishing and pollution, and indirectly through the emission of greenhouse gases and associated anthropogenic climate change.
3.6Solar Radiation Modification
Solar radiation modification (SRM) is a set of approaches that could fully or partially offset the temperature rise caused by greenhouse gas emissions, thus reducing some of the harmful impacts of anthropogenic climate change.
3.7Infectious Diseases
The past century has seen enormous progress against some diseases, with the mortality associated with a few diseases — malaria, for instance — falling dramatically.1 However, infectious diseases remain a major threat to human health and wellbeing.
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The minerals locked up in the most valuable asteroid in our solar system are worth $15 quintillion, according to estimates from startup Planetary Resources. The number should be taken with a grain of salt, but even if it is off by several orders of magnitude, the sum would still be colossal.
