Environment and social transformation

The present physiognomy of the surface of planet Earth is the outcome of interactions between three systems: nature, humans and technologies. Each evolved throughout history. Nature (including the climate) has its history on the scale of millions of years. Humans and their societal organization (the sociosphere) have their history on the scale of thousands of years. Technologies, their applications and their structural manifestations (the technosphere), are products of human ingenuity and have their history, associated with the industrial revolution, on the scale or hundreds of years. The scales of history are different and the factors that control the processes operative in each of the three systems are different. However, the events that make the contemporary scene and the forces that shape the transformations of tomorrow relate to the complex interactions between these three systems. The differences entail the inherent difficulties of these interactions, and as humans are the principal operators of these interactions, human failures often add to these difficulties and result in what have become recognized as environmental problems.