One Earth One Future: Integrating Sciences for Sustainability

Abstract The complexity of the world poses both challenges and opportunities for attaining a sustainable and equitable future. This complexity involves imperfect control and unforeseen events, complicating the establishment of a clear route to sustainability. Transitions are expected to originate from various pathways that may conflict and require trade-offs among different regions. Acknowledging this diversity in perspectives can improve our collective capacity for global transformation. Nevertheless, fragmented knowledge systems hinder societies' ability to make timely and scientifically informed decisions to address global sustainability issues. Seed-scale interventions, however, neglect larger changes needed in societies and global systems towards seeds of desirable futures. While progress is made in nurturing seeds, there is failure in deconstructing old growth, that is the institutions, policies and cultural structures hindering the transformation of societies into paths of sustainable, thriving and just futures. It is argued that a new area of research is necessary on de-constructive policies that target institutions, culture and power structures impeding the growth of a more sustainable, socially just and prosperous world. These endeavours are required to enable the evaluation, support and connection of a more diverse set of place-based transformative sustainability initiatives. They should consider the global and integrated nature of emerging seeds of a desirable future, as well as the paths of co-evolution and potential interactions across seeds and possible futures.