In his editorial for the August 2020 issue of environmental SCIENTIST, IWSN researcher Mark Everard writes: “We can, and must, reconnect society with its ecological roots. A new paradigm is required that places ecosystems and their processes at the very roots of societal thinking, policy, fiscal systems and resource use habits. There is nothing regressive about the required transformation. It is one based on opportunity and lasting value, recognising ecosystems and their services as foundational resources generating a wealth of linked values that are fully accounted for in the ways we think, plan, invest and trade.”
The articles in Reconnecting society with its ecological roots cover a range of topics on this theme, including water, cities, health, zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19, defence and security, and transport. Mark has contributed several other articles to the issue, and IWSN Director Chad Staddon is co-author of a concluding article which is a call to action for environmental regeneration.
Mark is Associate Professor of Ecosystem Services at the University of the West of England, and a Vice President of the Institution of Environmental Sciences, which publishes environmental SCIENTIST.
A PDF of the full issue is available here.