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The answer is 42 … What is THE question?

Author

Listed:
  • Ron McCormick

    (Bureau of Land Management)

  • Lawrence A. Kapustka

    (LK Consultancy)

Abstract

Much of policy is fast-tracked and driven toward answers. This approach engenders selecting a problem with short-term thinking, offering a narrowly focussed solution, and seldom considering the linkages to other parts of the overarching system. Short-term and ‘common-sense’ solutions often bear unintended consequences that may produce worse situations over the long term than if no action had been taken at all. The nexus of food, energy, and water illustrates the need for a holistic approach to evaluating alternative environmental management options and settling on policy initiatives. Successful solutions demand that we ask the right questions, and these should be informed by an understanding of how resilience of ecological systems influences the ability to provide ecosystem services and sustainable societal structures. By explicitly tying resilience to sustainability goals and gaging a society’s desired rate of use and associated total available stock of ecological goods and services, stakeholders can settle on what ‘the’ questions are and only then understand what the supporting ecological systems can actually provide in an equitable and economic fashion.

Suggested Citation

  • Ron McCormick & Lawrence A. Kapustka, 2016. "The answer is 42 … What is THE question?," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 6(1), pages 208-213, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:6:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s13412-016-0376-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-016-0376-7
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