Planetary sustainability collection

Abstract

This collection on 'planetary sustainability' is both about a present need and about a future vision. NASA envisaged a threefold scheme under this title:

An artful contribution to our planetary concerns

“…All these far-reaching deliberations are, however, surely worthy a project of their own. 18 It is a great pleasure expanding on Pryor's insightful considerations, which remain a very thoughtful provocation for theology in an age of science and climate change. A reconceptualization of traditional theological ideas like this-a reclaiming of the symbols, as Pryor calls it, in line with Tillich-is much needed in our days.…”

Planetary sustainability: transitions of an idea

“…In this context, the original idea was to aim ‘at extending the concept of sustainability into our solar system and safeguarding a sustainable development of life on earth and beyond, be it of human or of other origin’ (Losch, 2016 b , 1). The sustainable development of humankind should be reconsidered in the context of the Solar System (Losch, 2016 b , 7).…”

“…By inadvertently carrying exotic organisms back to Earth on our spaceships, we risk the release of biohazardous materials into our own ecology.’ Planetary protection thus has a two-way orientation: it cares about forward contamination by spacecraft (such as Mars robots) touching other planets’ ‘bio'spheres, and about the potential backward contamination by those spacecraft returning to Earth (like the Apollo mission, Japan's Hayabusa probe, etc.). In this context, the original idea was to aim ‘at extending the concept of sustainability into our solar system and safeguarding a sustainable development of life on earth and beyond, be it of human or of other origin’ (Losch, 2016 b , 1). The sustainable development of humankind should be reconsidered in the context of the Solar System (Losch, 2016 b , 7).…”