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Article 20181WILL REASON PREVAIL?Great deeds require resolve, persistence, literacy, reason, and a strong commitment to ethics.Arguably, sustainable use of the planet is the ultimate great deed because it involves peace amonghumans and other life forms. Sustainability is probably the greatest experiment ever undertaken byhumankind. It cannot succeed in an atmosphere of war, anarchy, or petty bickering between unilateralistsand internationalists (and one might add between the academic disciplines). It cannotsucceed if fear and force are the primary motivators. Sustainability cannot be achieved by force,even by a superpower whose leaders feel obligated to uphold world order. A consensual global setof values expressed through new international institutions is essential. Such a set of values willrequire the support of all of the powerful nation-states and the financial support of the wealthy, whocannot escape to another comparable planet if this one is damaged.MOBILIZING BY CATASTROPHESThe worst-case scenario is that humankind will fail to respond adequately to the inevitable catastrophesthat will result from continuing unsustainable practices (including war) on a large scale.One or more major catastrophes may be necessary to cause a global paradigm shift from unsustainablepractices to sustainable practices. One hopes that the catastrophe will not exceed theresilience of the global life support system. Even then, an effective response will require world governancebeyond what now exists.This world governance, in turn, must be guided by shared ecological and sustainability ethics basedon a much higher level of environmental literacy than now exists. Emerging world leaders must be wellinformed about how Earth’s life support systems work and be able to communicate new paradigmsto all humankind. As Paterson et al. (2003) note, governance has become one of the key themes inglobal environmental politics. They further state that much of the strength of this concept derives fromits capacity to convey a sense of an overarching set of arrangements beyond the specificities ofindividual issue areas or thematic concerns that encompass a broad range of political foci.ESTABLISHING FEEDBACK LOOPS FOR THE ECOLOGICAL LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMThe suggestion that a nation-state, such as the United States, manage its economy withoutfeedback loops providing information (e.g., inflation rates, consumer confidence, housing starts,and unemployment) would be ridiculed. The continual feedback of information enables economiststo determine the health of the economy and nurture the system when its health is impaired. Thelevel of detail required is impressive. However, no comparable feedback loops provide detailed,continuous information about the health of the ecological life support system, which is at least asimportant as the economy and, arguably, more important, since natural capital is the basis for allother forms of capital. The purpose of monitoring each system, either economic or ecological, is toconfirm that pre-established quality control conditions are being met. If not, remedial measuresshould be taken quickly. The methods and procedures are available for monitoring the condition ofthe ecological life support system, but the motivation to do so at the level of detail provided for theeconomy is lacking. Nurturing the ecological life support system requires that a monitoring systembe established. Without adequate feedback loops, the destruction of other species will continue.NURTURING THE ECOLOGICAL LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM WHILE NURTURING OLD PEOPLEAchieving sustainability in an unsustainable world will not be possible if all unsustainable practicesare not replaced with sustainable practices. Population stability in all nation-states and