Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94306, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Feb 26;110 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):3665-72. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1107484110. Epub 2013 Jan 7.
Efforts to develop a global understanding of the functioning of the Earth as a system began in the mid-1980s. This effort necessitated linking knowledge from both the physical and biological realms. A motivation for this development was the growing impact of humans on the Earth system and need to provide solutions, but the study of the social drivers and their consequences for the changes that were occurring was not incorporated into the Earth System Science movement, despite early attempts to do so. The impediments to integration were many, but they are gradually being overcome, which can be seen in many trends for assessments, such as the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, as well as both basic and applied science programs. In this development, particular people and events have shaped the trajectories that have occurred. The lessons learned should be considered in such emerging research programs as Future Earth, the new global program for sustainability research. The transitioning process to this new program will take time as scientists adjust to new colleagues with different ideologies, methods, and tools and a new way of doing science.
努力从全球角度理解地球系统的运行始于 20 世纪 80 年代中期。这一努力需要将物理和生物领域的知识联系起来。推动这一发展的一个动机是人类对地球系统的影响日益增大，需要提供解决方案，但社会驱动因素及其对正在发生的变化的影响的研究并没有纳入地球系统科学运动，尽管早期曾试图这样做。整合面临许多障碍，但它们正在逐渐克服，这可以从许多评估趋势中看出，如政府间生物多样性和生态系统服务平台，以及基础科学和应用科学计划。在这一发展过程中，特定的人和事件塑造了已经发生的轨迹。在新兴的研究项目中，如未来地球，这一新的可持续性研究全球项目中，应该考虑到这些经验教训。向这个新计划的过渡过程需要时间，因为科学家们需要适应具有不同意识形态、方法和工具的新同事，以及一种新的科学研究方式。
