Mass production and consumption in a fossil-fuel-based economy have led to “overdeveloped” societies with unsustainable lifestyles. To help combat the resulting global warming and to ensure sustainable prosperity for all, science must foster integration between diverse disciplines and become more effective at working with the rest of society.

In their Editorial in Angewandte Chemie, Yuan T. Lee, President-Elect, International Council for Science (ICSU), Nobel Prize 1986, (pictured) and Andrew Wei-Chih Yang, both Academica Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, outline a path to putting humanity on sustainable footing, including finding alternative ways of development, intensifying research into solar-energy exploitation, focusing on technology improvements to benefit groups rather than individuals, and drawing strength and inspiration from the diverse cultural traditions around the world.

• Chemistry, Science, and Our Sustainable Future,
  Yuan T. Lee, Andrew Wei-Chih Yang
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.201105640

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