Non-linear dynamics and sustainable development
22 April 1999
[ROME]
The study of non-linear dynamics offer "unexplored possibilities" for overcoming the current "stalemate" in knowing how to face the many threats facing modern civilization, according to a statement issued last month at the end of a study week organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
The statement was drawn up by Marcelo Sanchez Sornod, chancellor of the academy, and Vladimir Keilis-Borok, of the International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics in Moscow.
According to the two authors, in addition to extending a wide range of debates on the applications of non-linear dynamics to critical phenomena, the meeting also identified areas in which the resources offered by such a form of analysis "have not as yet been fully exploited", stressing that "certain groups and scholars have not yet entered into dialogue".
In particular, it suggested that one area might be the study of scenarios of transition to "unsustainability", and specific ways of responding to it. "Such a study may help to overcome a lack of interest in this question, something which was criticized by several speakers," say the authors of the statement.
"We should engage neither in Casandra-like announcements of future catastrophes, nor in any irresponsible optimism," the authors write. "Today, in the face of the global complexity of our contemporary context, the human being, more than ever before, is called upon to find that right kind of rationality which will achieve survival and sustainability through the application of new and well-deployed practical criteria."
 |  |  |  |
Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1999 Registered No. 785998 England.