This article kicks off a new organizing threat “Tomorrow’s Earth” with an optimistic and correct editorial. Pointing out that 50 years ago Hardin published the “Tragedy of the Commons” (in Science), Berg lays out that today’s challenges can be traced back to those identified by Hardin. At that time, Donald Kennedy (then the editor) pointed out that the big question “is whether scientific evidence can successfully overcome social, economic, and political resistance.” That is our challenge! (As an example, the article “Enhanced photovoltage for inverted planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells” … )
Better understanding and communicating the history of our planet is key, and “Learning from past climatic changes” helps with this. The letters section including a big piece on ingenuity, looking at “Education for the future” – my take away was that there are a large number of new demands on the education system, but I don’t see a decrease in many of the “old/traditional” demands. This is a challenge for our schools and universities.
The psychology paper “Prevalence-induced concept change in human judgment” had an interesting conclusion that “social problems may seem intractable in part because reductions in their prevalence lead people to see [notice] more of them.”