ESA Ecological Visions Committee (Hosted by NCEAS)

• Margaret A. Palmer

Abstract
Draft Vision Statement: We are in an era of unprecedented environmental change that demands immediate and unparalleled actions so that the ecological sciences can fully employ its powerful capacity to solve or lessening these problems. This will require harnessing the explosion of available environmental knowledge, technology, and computational tools as well as, stimulating the expansion of cooperation among diverse groups of researchers, managers, and policy makers. The ecology of the future must explain and predict our shared environment, apply that predictive power to solve major societal problems, and increase fundamental knowledge about humans AND the natural world. Accomplishing these visions will require revolutionary changes among the ecological scientific community and ESA's future agenda.

Committee Goal: Translate the visions statement into a series of discrete, measurable objectives each of which is linked to an extensive action plan for the society. The committee goal will be reached through extensive communication with ESA leadership, ESA membership, and representatives from government agencies, policy makers, NGO's, and private foundations.