Nearly 70 years ago, a Soviet geochemistVladimir Vernadsky, wrote that global society guided by science, would soften the human environmental impact, and the Earth would become a "noosphere" — a planet of the mind, "life's domain ruled by reason".Today, Humans have realised the environmental damage of the last century. With the aid of satellites and supercomputers, they now have a real chance to balance economic development with the environment beginning with sustaining the Earths ecological systems.
We've come through a period of finally understanding the nature and effect of humanity's transformation of the Earth," said William Clark, a biologist at Harvard University. "Having realised it, can we become clever enough to be able to maintain the rates of progress?" he asked. "I think we can.
Some scientists say people can't understand the living planet well enough to know how to manage it. But this problem attracts world leaders and thousands of other participants to summits where they discuss ways of sustainable development.
missions of carbon dioxide, whether from an Ohio power plant or a Bangkok taxicab, contribute to global warming. Shoppers in Tokyo seeking inexpensive picture frames send people deep into Indonesian forests.
7 Experts conclude that the same inventiveness that accelerated human development can be used to soften human impact.