Earth Stewardship: An Initiative by the Ecological Society of America to Foster Engagement to Sustain Planet Earth - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 188

Given the successes documented from previous ESA efforts, future ESA
Presidents will likely choose to sharpen the Society's focus on Earth Stewardship in
different ways. Recent discussions with other professional societies whose expertise
is related to stewardship have documented broad common interests that can be
developed in the future. A recent effort by the ESA and the British Ecological
Society to foster regular discussions among leaders of all the world's ecological
societies will provide an opportunity to interest a global audience of ecologists.
The changes that we ecologists have seen in less than a generation include
remarkable advances in technology (e.g., computing power, global positioning sys-
tems, geographic information systems, sensor networks), rapid changes in global
climate, a blossoming of quantitative analytical techniques, an explosion of infor-
mation with the digital revolution, and a great increase in cross-disciplinary and
international collaborations. The kinds of science that can be done have changed,
and the training of new generations of ecologists must change accordingly. Amidst
all these changes to our fi eld, the natural world is also changing at an unprecedented
rate. This set of circumstances puts ESA at a critical juncture where we have the
opportunity to train future generations of ecologists to work effectively in a world
that is fundamentally different from the one in which we grew up. Further, ESA
must intensify efforts to partner with a wider range of institutions and become more
active participants in problem-solving, recognizing that compromise is often neces-
sary. Having realized these challenges and begun to respond, ESA must continue to
embrace them.
Acknowledgments We thank the staff, governing board, and members of the Ecological Society
of America, especially Executive Director Katherine McCarter, for their engagement in crafting
and implementing ESA's Earth Stewardship Initiative. We also thank Baird Callicott, Cliff Duke,
Katherine McCarter, and Teresa Mourad for their careful review of this chapter.
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