Implementing the Transition to Sustainable Development

In more recent times, humanity has transformed the planet Earth to such a point that it threatens the production by the natural world of goods and services on which the same humanity is dependent. These environmental changes have undergone considerable acceleration in the course of the twentieth century. Man’s activity has pushed the earth system beyond the boundaries of its natural functioning. The natural environment’s future reactions to pressures exercised by man will therefore become increasingly unpredictable. Given the complexity of the earth system, drastic changes cannot be excluded, once certain critical thresholds are passed. In particular, we should think about what would happen if, for example, rapid changes in climate occurred in conjunction with rapid changes in the political, economic or social sphere. Some regions of the world are more vulnerable than others. Humanity has embarked involuntarily on the road to a wide-ranging experience for which there is no known central management or clear vision of the destination that will be reached by the trajectory it is following.