Preface
: An Annotated Bibliography to Important References in “Sustainability”
This annotated bibliography must be incomplete, simply by the nature of “sustainability studies” which is expansive and evolving in new directions. When possible annotations will come with keywords which you can use to search for similar articles or issue areas.
Sustainability studies is also an attempt to unify multiple disciplines and fields of research and thinking, so for each article there may be a number of relevant directions an instructor or researcher can come to the material. For example, in the case of ocean acidification, we might think of this in terms of chemistry, human factors (sociology, political science), historical interactions and conditions of the ocean chemistry (or even histories of knowledge about ocean chemistry), physiology (effects on organisms), art
(what would be a depiction of such a change, etc), and many others. I will leave this kind of treatment out of the annotations because it would violate our needs for brevity, and because you, the reader, will be able to see the relevance to your own discipline and work if it has any interesting potential for you.
Preference is given in this bibliogr aphy to “important” peer-reviewed articles and books, and is not mean to be a listing of all possible entries. Certainly MANY MANY
“important” contributions will be missed, but these entries should get you started.
The Development of Sustainability Science and the “Anthropocene”—or human dominated era
Note: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) contains a special section of its publication dedicated to “sustainability science”—the emerging crossdisciplinary work being done to understand human-ecological interactions and global environmental change.
Lubchenco, J. (1998). "Entering the Century of the Environment: A New Social Contract for the Environment." Science 279 (5350): 491-497.
Keywords: Sustainability Science; Anthropocene; Science; Science and Society
This article describes the new responsibilities then President of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Jane Lubchenco, saw as important in an era of urgent and unprecedented ecological changes. She describes the new contract as needing to address, “The new and unmet needs of society include more comprehensive information, understanding, and technologies for society to move toward a more sustainable biosphere —one which is ecologically sound, economically

feasible, and socially just.”
Sears, P. B. (1964). "Ecology: A Subversive Subject." Bioscience 14 (7): 11-13.
In this classic essay, Sears posits that if any society took ecology seriously, it would challenge the logic and prudence of how societies often work, exploiting ecology in an unsustainable way.
Stern, P. C. (1993). "A Second Environmental Science: Human-Environment
Interactions." Science 260 (5116): 1897-1899.
Keywords: Social Science; Interdisciplinary; Human Drivers
Here Stern argues that if we need to develop a second environmental science that focuses on human factors
—how do humans drive change; how do they respond and adapt; “which interventions are the most effective?” This call relates to the development of several new fields as well —for example, conservation biology as a “crisis discipline.”
Stonich, S. and D. Mandell (2007). Political Ecology and Sustainability Science:
Opportunity and Challenge. The World System and the Earth System. A. Hornberg and
C. Crumley. Walnut Creek, CA, Left Coast Press : 258-267.
Keywords: Interdisciplinary, Sustainability Science, World Systems, World History
This edited volume approaches human historical “world systems” (unified economies with a division of labor) as well as ways in which to conceptualize social sciences integrating with biophysical sciences. This is a sophisticated look at what real problems must be solved in order to integrated fairly disparate disciplinary areas.
Turner, B. L. I. (2003). "A Framework of Analysis for Vulnerability Analysis in
Sustainability Science." PNAS 100 (14): 8074-8079.
Keywords: Vulnerability; Global Environmental Change; Sustainability Science
This work fits within the growing area of not only sustainability science
—but the analysis of vulnerability of human societies to environmental change. It provides a way to think of this vulnerability.
Vitousek, P. M., H. A. Mooney, et al. (1997). "Human Domination of Earth's
Ecosystems." Science 277 : 494-499.
Keywords: Global Environmental Change; Anthropocene

This is one of the more important references that describes several “structural” ecological changes occurring, forced through human interactions. These include changes to the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, the Sixth Great Extinction (biodiversity loss), land use and conversion, and freshwater use.
Sustainability, Society and Science
This is an entire field of study unto itself and include the classic works in the philosophy of science
—but also the work of how science fits within society itself. This means the area deals with the proper authority of knowledge, information, and research, and the interaction with policy, human ethics, decision making, preferences and attitudes, and the use/abuse of science in discourse and communication. One issue that recurs in this literature is that not only is science situated within the society creating it in very complex ways, the knowledge that is created through scientific communities does not lead to obvious policy solutions or outcomes. Better knowledge, alas, does not automatically translate into better decisions.
Keywords: philosophy of science, scientific revolutions, sociology of science, politics of science
Eagle, J. and B. N. Thomson (2003). "Answering Lord Petty's Question: Dissecting
Regulatory Overfishing." Ocean and Coastal Management 46 : 649-679.
This paper offers a strong empirical case for how science and policy (in this case pertaining to the sustainability of fisheries) can create several structural problems, such as over-fishing. In this case, over-fishing is explained by decisions to ignore scientific advice amongst important relationships.
Freudenburg, W. R., R. Gramling, et al. (2008). "Scientific Certainty Argumentation
Methods (SCAMs): Science and the Politics of Doubt*." Sociological Inquiry 78 (1): 2-38.
This work identifies the ways in which arguments for “certainty” are tactics used by organizations, movements, industry, or programs often wishing to avoid regulation.
Since absolute certainty is fairly impossible to achieve in environmental sciences, waiting for certainty is a good way to appeal to a public (to whom this sounds prudent because the nature of scientific uncertainty is misunderstood) and delay changes to the status quo--- which most certainly was not itself produced with similar scientific certainty.

Funtowicz, S. O. and J. R. Ravetz (1993). "Science for the Post-Normal Age."
Futures(September): 739-755.
Funtowicz and Ravetz note that problems are becoming more complex, and science should no longer be viewed as delivering truth, but rather variations of quality which will be questioned (legitimately) as uncertainty about the basics increases. As uncertainty is raised while policy stakes are raised, they argue that science needs to be democratized and opened up to the lay public. Several questions of global environmental change, they note, fit their model of “post-normal” science.
Jasanoff, S. (1990). The Fifth Branch: Science Advisors as Policymakers.
Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Another classic in the social context of science. Jasonoff notes that policies have come to rely on scientists as advisors in regulator and other organizations (specifically she looks a t the EPA and FDA), where this advisory role creates the “fifth branch” of government. She studies the way that science and scientists work in relation to policy, the issues of peer-review as it relates to regulatory work and other key points.
Jasanoff, S. and B. Wynne (1998). Science and decisionmaking. Human Choice and
Climate Change. S. Rayner and E. L. Malone. Columbus, OH, Batelle Press : 1-87.
This is an essay in the Rayner and Malone series of books on social issues relating to climate change. Jasonoff and Wynne clearly explain and survey the ways in which science is theorized to operate in clear but encyclopedic coverage.
Kuhn, T. S. (1996). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, University of
Chicago Press.
Classic work that details the importance of scientific paradigms that contextualizes work in science. The basic idea is that paradigms are established over time but can change through scientific revolutions that alter what we think we know and knew (such as the
Copernican revolution). For purposes of sustainability, which relies so heavily on descriptions of scientific problems, we are left with the inescapable discomfort that something held to be true in normal science can be overturned
—demanding that our knowledge claims be made with humility.

Latour, B. (2004). The Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy.
Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
Latour argues that one of our major problems in sustainability is the recurring dichotomy of nature versus civilization (and its related dualisms) where nature is then dualistically opposed to the human leaving humanity out of nature but also its enemy. BUT, he argues unlike others who have made this well-worn point
—that we must abandon the word and idea of “nature” itself because it has never (and cannot be rescued) meant anything but the Western dualism. Nature for Latour, can never mean anything but the dichotomy. He points, for example, to indigenous peoples who often do not have a word for nature, but instead describe it full of agents – mountains, streams, lakes, the Bison nation, etc… Here non-human parts of the world are not some lumped category.
Science, traditionally, has had the job of going out into the world and coming back to describe it to the rest o f us (Plato’s Cave analogy is used here). Latour argues this makes science a dictator of the world inasmuch as science is able to dictate what is real, etc… At the point at which we can rescue ourselves from Plato’s cave, we can think of science as more like talented agents in the world that we hear from but are not dictated by that we will be able to make more democratic choices that see the world as full of actors instead of an inanimate nature to be inspected by science. This is a complex work with man y details about Latour’s own ideas of how discourse and knowledge should interact, but he believes that this will be a key for a more sustainable world.
Pielke, Roger, Jr. (2007). The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and
Politics. Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press.
Pielke criticizes advocate scientists. He argues that we need scientists as “honest brokers” who expand the scope of policy options by serving as intermediaries who describe the consequences of potential choices as best they can instead of scientists using science to advance specific policies as issue advocates.
Soulé, M. (1985). "What is Conservation Biology?" Bioscience 35 (1): 727-734.
This classic article could easily also be put under the area of science in the anthropocene and other sections. Soulé notes that given the hemorrhaging of species in the current period, conservation biology is being developed as a crisis discipline, and this discipline is not meant to coldly study life as an object they are not supposed to care about —say if a species is extinguished or extirpated. Rather the crisis discipline of conservation biology studies life because life related long-term systems are important and valuable.

Agriculture
Agriculture has been a central concern for sustainability since the 19 th Century, where issues of feeding populations well enough started in high profile publications like that of
Malthus. Now, additional concerns for agriculture include the ability to continue to increase food productions while most fertile soil is already under cultivation, water resources are changing, and soil chemistry has undergone a global change from nitrogen additions. Our ability is now not just feeding a population, but creating agricultural supply without undermining the ecological processes needed for future food production. This problem is part of the explanation for some ancient civilization collapses (see Ancient Civilizations and Collapse section in this bibliography).
Keywords: Fish, staple crops, nutrient cycles, famine, mal/undernourishment, soils, yield, diversity (genetic and other), intellectual property rights (for seeds with genetic alterations for example).
Diaz, R. J. and R. Rosenberg (2008). "Spreading Dead Zones and Consequences for
Marine Ecosystems." Science 321 (5891): 926-929.
Also about nutrient loading from agriculture, this article shows that there has been an exponential increase in “dead zones” in the coastal areas from phosphorous and nitrogen fertilizers of industrial agriculture. These inputs are now considered “key stre ssors” for marine systems. Dead zones occur when nutrients spur algae growth in delta and other areas, but the growth in algae leads to the absorption of dissolved oxygen in the area enough that it can threaten the marine life there causing death and migrations.
FAO (2006). State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture . Rome, Italy, Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Every 2 years the FAO releases the major assessment for world fisheries. It covers the growth/trends in fisheries, disposition (how a fish is used), imports/exports, aquculture, and other related issues.
Malthus, T. R. (1993). An essay on the principle of population. Oxford world classic papers. New York, Oxford University Press.

This classic and controversial essay proposes that populations tend to grow exponentially while food production can only be expected to rise arithmetically. The result is that populations, and Malthus really thought the poor were especially prone to excess population but much less so the rich, will outpace food production. This will result in “misery” – malnutrition, disease, and human violence.
O'brien, K. and e. al (2004). "Mapping Vulnerability to Multiple Stressors: Climate
Change and Globalization in India." Global Environmental Change 14 : 303-313.
The article measures the multiple exposures of vulnerability from climate-related changes and global economic forces as they press upon Indian farmers, varied by region and the extent of each exposure to each pressure. The importance of this is to show that agriculture and farming face not only challenges in precipitation, but broad social forces as well, and sometimes these forces intermingle in maliciously.
P. M. Vitousek, R. Naylor, T. Crews, M. B. David, L. E. Drinkwater, E. Holland, P. J.
Johnes, J. Katzenberger, L. A. Martinelli, P. A. Matson, G. Nziguheba, D. Ojima, C. A.
Palm, G. P. Robertson, P. A. Sanchez, A. R. Townsend , and F. S. Zhang, “Nutrient
Imbalances in Agricultural Development” Science 19 June 2009 324: 1519-1520 [DOI:
10.1126/science.1170261] (in Policy Forum).
The authors evaluate nutrient balances in 3 corn systems. They note that nutrient loads globally have been doubled by fertilizer, and “These inputs have helped to keep world crop productivity ahead of human population growth and can enhance rural economic development,” but there have been large costs (environmental and health) that have come with this. Sustainable agriculture will need to navigate between deficits of nutrients and excesses.
Human Health
Literature and Sustainability