Earth System Science Partnership

Global environmental change is not limited to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, and cannot be understood using a simple causal paradigm. Recent studies on the Earth's land surface, oceans, coasts and atmosphere, biodiversity, water cycle, and biogeochemical cycle have shown that human activities are causing changes far beyond natural ranges - in some cases, these changes are shocking - and the rate of change is accelerating. The characteristics of Earth system dynamics are critical thresholds and abrupt changes. Research on global change over the past decade has shown that the current operating state of the Earth system far exceeds the normal state of the past 500000 years.

ESSP pays special attention to human driven changes, which are multidimensional and have cascading effects on the Earth system. These characteristics make them difficult to understand or predict. However, the application of comprehensive scientific methods and advanced modeling techniques helps to gain a clearer understanding of the past and predict various future scenarios. We now have evidence that human activities may unintentionally cause serious consequences for the Earth's environment and habitats, potentially transforming the Earth's system into other operating modes that may be irreversible and unsuitable for humans and other life forms.

The activities of ESSP recognize the need to build interdisciplinary bridges in order to truly understand our life support systems and the impact of humans on them. More importantly, they seek to go beyond descriptions of natural phenomena and gain a deeper understanding of processes and system level behavior. The purpose of ESSP is to contribute to the knowledge base required for developing scientific solutions that support sustainable resource utilization.

The Earth System Science Partnership is a joint initiative of four international global environmental change research programs (DIVERSITAS, IHDP, IGBP, WCRP).

This partnership contributes to comprehensive research on the Earth system, its changing patterns, and their impacts on global and regional sustainability.

The core activity of ESSP is a joint project on global sustainability issues, aimed at addressing the global environmental change aspects of four key issues affecting human well-being: energy and carbon cycle (GCP), food security (GECAFS), water resources (GWSP), and human health (GEC&HH). ESSP is currently developing a small group of comprehensive regional studies aimed at providing reliable scientific understanding for sustainable development at the local level. The first study was conducted in Monsoon Asia (MAIRS). The joint project, START, and MAIRS all have a strong set of capacity building and network elements. ESSP partners also closely collaborate with the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) and the Inter American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI).

Transition to 'Future Earth'

On December 31, 2012, the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) transitioned to a new initiative called "Future Earth" by ICSU, ISSC, and their partners, and will continue to develop in the coming years. During this period, the GEC research programs (DIVERSITAS, IGBP, IHDP, and WCRP) will continue to collaborate closely. At present, "Future Earth" is planned to become a ten-year global sustainability international research program, based on decades of scientific excellence from four GEC research programs (DIVERSITAS, IGBP, IHDP, and WCRP) and their scientific partnership ESSP.