Finally a book that for the first time presents the state of the Earth as the truly complex issue it really is. Through groundbreaking new science, The Human Quest recognizes what is at stake. The content comes to life through beautiful and dramatic pictures and is thereby the first of its kind to merge science and photography. It serves as an inspiration and guide for action as humankind faces a turning point in our history and the state of the Earth. Over the past 50 years, our unsustainable ways of living have begun to put massive pressure on the planetary processes that support our well-being and economic development. The Human Quest tells how. Integrating the latest scientific insights with the power of images and real world experience, Johan Rockström and Mattias Klum combine evidence from the many scientific disciplines that study how planet Earth operates and the relations between ourselves and the Earth system. They not only diagnose the problems, but also look at the opportunities and evidence supporting that transitions to a sustainable future are possible.
Johan Rockström is one of the world's leading international scientists on global sustainability. He is Science Advisor to Peter Bakker (President World Business Council for Sustainable Development, WBCSD) and regularly gives scientific advice to the UN/Ban Ki-moon SDG process (the Open Working Group in the General Assembly). He is Co-chair with Professor Jeffrey Sachs (Earth Institute) of the Growth within planetary boundaries theme of the Ban Ki-moon Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). He is Executive Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Chair of several international science-policy-business initiatives on global sustainable development (EAT Forum on Food and Health; Earth League a network of world leading Earth science institutions; Water-Land-Ecosystem program of the CGIAR/Green revolution institutes; Arctic Resilience Assessment for the Arctic Council). Johan Rockström is in the Swedish government's Future's Commission and has been elected Sweden s most influential person on environmental issues two years in a row, and voted Swede of the year 2009.
Mattias Klum is a Swedish photographer and filmmaker, known for portraying, in his own artistic way, endangered species, natural environments and ethnic minorities in peril around the globe. Since 1997, he has had a number of articles and cover images published by National Geographic magazine. Klum was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2008. He is a Senior Fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, a Fellow at the National Geographic Society and the Linnean Society of London. This is Klum's thirteenth book.