Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts

F Stuart Chapin 3rd¹, Elke U Weber², Elena M Bennett³, Reinette Biggs^{4

5}, Jeroen van den Bergh^{6

7}, W Neil Adger⁸, Anne-Sophie Crépin⁹, Stephen Polasky¹⁰, Carl Folke^{9

11}, Marten Scheffer¹², Kathleen Segerson¹³, John M Anderies¹⁴, Scott Barrett¹⁵, Juan-Camilo Cardenas¹⁶, Stephen R Carpenter¹⁷, Joern Fischer¹⁸, Nils Kautsky¹⁹, Simon A Levin²⁰, Jason F Shogren²¹, Brian Walker²², James Wilen²³, Aart de Zeeuw²⁴

Affiliations

¹ Professor Emeritus, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA. terry.chapin@alaska.edu.
² Andlinger Center, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
³ Bieler School of Environment, McGill University, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, H9X 3V9, Canada.
⁴ Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
⁵ Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 104 05, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁶ ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain.
⁷ SBE & IVM, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁸ College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, UK.
⁹ Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 104 05, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹⁰ Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
¹¹ Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹² Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
¹³ Department of Economics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269-1063, USA.
¹⁴ School of Human Evolution and Social Change and School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-2401, USA.
¹⁵ Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01002, USA.
¹⁷ Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706-1413, USA.
¹⁸ Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
¹⁹ Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, 106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.
²⁰ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544-1003, USA.
²¹ Department of Economics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071-3985, USA.
²² CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.
²³ Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
²⁴ Tilburg School of Economics and Management, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

PMID: 35380347
PMCID: PMC8982314
DOI: 10.1007/s13280-022-01721-3

Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts

F Stuart Chapin 3rd et al. Ambio. 2022 Sep.

. 2022 Sep;51(9):1907-1920.

doi: 10.1007/s13280-022-01721-3. Epub 2022 Apr 5.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Professor Emeritus, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA. terry.chapin@alaska.edu.
² Andlinger Center, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
³ Bieler School of Environment, McGill University, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, H9X 3V9, Canada.
⁴ Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
⁵ Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 104 05, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁶ ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain.
⁷ SBE & IVM, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁸ College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, UK.
⁹ Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 104 05, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹⁰ Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
¹¹ Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹² Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
¹³ Department of Economics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269-1063, USA.
¹⁴ School of Human Evolution and Social Change and School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-2401, USA.
¹⁵ Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01002, USA.
¹⁷ Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706-1413, USA.
¹⁸ Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany.
¹⁹ Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, 106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.
²⁰ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544-1003, USA.
²¹ Department of Economics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071-3985, USA.
²² CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.
²³ Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
²⁴ Tilburg School of Economics and Management, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

PMID: 35380347
PMCID: PMC8982314
DOI: 10.1007/s13280-022-01721-3

Abstract

Transformation toward a sustainable future requires an earth stewardship approach to shift society from its current goal of increasing material wealth to a vision of sustaining built, natural, human, and social capital-equitably distributed across society, within and among nations. Widespread concern about earth's current trajectory and support for actions that would foster more sustainable pathways suggests potential social tipping points in public demand for an earth stewardship vision. Here, we draw on empirical studies and theory to show that movement toward a stewardship vision can be facilitated by changes in either policy incentives or social norms. Our novel contribution is to point out that both norms and incentives must change and can do so interactively. This can be facilitated through leverage points and complementarities across policy areas, based on values, system design, and agency. Potential catalysts include novel democratic institutions and engagement of non-governmental actors, such as businesses, civic leaders, and social movements as agents for redistribution of power. Because no single intervention will transform the world, a key challenge is to align actions to be synergistic, persistent, and scalable.

Keywords: Anthropocene; Earth stewardship; Institutions; Market economy; Social norms; Transformation.

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Figures

**Fig. 1**
Leverage points for transformation, based on Abson et al. (2017) and O’Brien (2018). Arrows indicate interactions among categories of leverage points. See Table 1 and accompanying text for examples of specific transformation approaches

**Fig. 2**
Interactions between changes in the social and natural world (outer arrows) with changes in beliefs, norms, values, and worldviews (inner circle) that are needed to sustain complex social-ecological systems. Also shown are many of the diverse social subsystems that mediate these interactions and provide potential entry points to trigger or support transformation toward more sustainable pathways

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts

Affiliations

Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Figures

References

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources