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Steve - I loved doing the readings. It's amazing how much they made me think about my own work. Let's see if I can summarize the high points: Bruntland - I don't think they advocate growth except as a redistribution issue - growth here, shrinkage there. They make a very strong point about development which does not mean growth. They also talk about social-ecological stability harking back to your graph which I hope you put up on the web (also would you put this rough essay of mine on the web. It relates to all of this, in particular resilience and scaling). They also talk about linkages (ecological, economic, jurisdictional). Of course I am going to emphasize that this whole way of viewing the world might gain by focusing on relationships, feedback, linkages etc... Ecologists - This is a fascinating article. It gave me a whole new perspective on the commons. They come down to the issue of enclosure of the commons vs local control of the commons through "hidden structure" and the sense of equity that comes from sharing a common future. Orr - Pretty straight forward in my view. His first 3 points are pretty obvious - focus on nature - society relations, need to improve citizenship and governance, improve education (is that what we're doing?). Then comes the issue that gets many squirming - and it derives from what he calls divergent problems with no real discrete or single solutions. So how do we deal with these when most of us come from a fairly analytic background? Good question. Use the term "spiritual awareness" and you send the objectivists off into space. Oh well. Actually I think my student Sarah Gaichas had an interesting way to view this issue in terms of the difference between observation and meditation. And that the kinds of issues we are probing require a mindset more akin to meditation than observation. I'll get her verbage together before class if I can find it. Kates - Again, pretty straight forward although I'm not sure many scientists involved in natural resource issues have thought this broadly about scientific issues. Of particular importance, sustainable science issues are problem driven, interdisciplinary and connected to the political agenda. One other thing they talk about is how to be proactive in the face of unpredictability - what you first need to do is determine where you want to avoid going and then try to define "safe" zones. Daily Resources Harrell's graph of sustainability time scale Harrell's reading notes Francis's reading notes