Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Mars, currently we are not contemplating the idea of establishing a colony there,
because there are no ecosystems on the moon nor apparently on Mars. Everybody
can have an artifi cial climate in cars, but only a few can afford to have it in houses.
We can imagine an artifi cial climate in a small city, but it is highly impractical. It is
certainly beyond our current skills and knowledge at regional or global scales. The
current environmental crisis is not only evidencing the always incomplete adaptive
nature of technology, but also is disclosing our socioecosystem nature and demon-
strating our dependence on ecosystems to maintain us. The challenge is to learn how
to fulfi ll human needs through coevolution with nature, rather than aiming to subdue
it (Jordan
1998
).
14.6
Final Remarks
We have to recognize that the changes we describe in the way we do science in order
to align with the socioecosystem nature of human enterprise, have already been tak-
ing place very slowly (for decades), and some of them in a serial fashion (one after
the other). Some of the changes are now very well established in the scientifi c com-
munity and many others still need to gain recognition by it (see for example Carmel
et al.
2013
). In any event these changes do not mean a substitution of one type of
research for another. Rather, a complementarity of approaches for better under-
standing our world is what is emerging. However, we are convinced that the episte-
mological paradigm we have described, is a reaction to some of the limitations the
current scientifi c paradigm has in identifying and dealing with the severe global-
scale environmental crisis that we are facing. The level of implementation of these
necessary changes varies highly between countries and academic communities, as
is also the level of opposition from them to explore alternative approaches. However,
the process is gaining momentum and it is a matter of time before we see this new
approach fully fl ourishing. The sooner the better, since time it is not precisely our
ally in the face of the currently high-speed planet's degradation process.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Ricardo Rozzi for his invitation to participate in this
volume. Also, commentaries on the text by Antonio Zirión, Terry Chapin and Ricardo Rozzi, as
well as the English revision by Roy May were very useful and highly appreciated. Lyliana Rentería,
Raúl Ahedo and Atzimba López helped with the preparation of the manuscript. The document was
prepared during a visit by Manuel Maass to the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) with a
DGAPA-UNAM sabbatical scholarship and within CONACYT support for ILTER.
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