Tribute to Will Steffen
Professor Will Steffen, one of the founders of Common Home of Humanity and Co-Chair of the Association´s Scientific Committee, passed away at age 76.
Will was above all a friend, but he was also a world renowned Earth System Scientist. As a major worker in the process of uniting the natural sciences, in a single science – Earth System Science – his systemic vision gave us the scientific support for the possibility of building the Common Home of Humanity.
A Home yet to be built.
Will Steffen knew that without creating an International Legal Framework, the Protection of the Earth-System will remain nothing but good intentions.
As he taught us, the Earth-System is a single united functional system and a stable climate is nothing more than the manifestation of well-functioning Earth-System. An intangible Common Heritage of Humankind. The main legacy that the current generations can leave to the next generations.
Death is an undeniable part of the human condition, but those who transcend themselves in the struggle for the common good, remain alive in the light that their example radiates and inspires.
In this day, we republish, together with The Planetary Press, the episode with Will Steffen on the “Common Home Conversations – Beyond UN75” Podcast.
Safe Operating Limits for Humanity
A MAHB Dialogue with Earth System Scientist Will Steffen
“One of the most fascinating has been put forth by a legal expert in Portugal. His name is Paulo Magalhaes. He has developed a concept called Our Common Home for Humanity (…) Paulo’s legal breakthrough was to recognize the earth system. Not the physical Earth, but the software, the functioning interface of the planet, the ocean circulation, the atmosphere circulation, the movement of materials, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus energy around the planet. Our natural Earth-scale systems don’t recognize or respond to national boundaries. They act together to form a single Earth system. So, the hope is that if we change the way we think, the fact that we live in nation-states, but we share one life support system, and we have now as humans become so numerous and so technologically powerful, we are seriously damaging our own life support system. We know that quite well in science, but Paulo’s innovation here is to say, we need a legal framework for this. And that will help us reorganize how we operate our economies and our societies. We need to see the earth system, not the earth, the system to be recognized legally as the intangible natural heritage of all humans.“
Will Steffen, in the interview to “MAHB Dialogues from Stanford” (Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere), University of Stanford, EUA, in October 2020.
On the day of the establishment of the Common Home of Humanity, in the Rectory of the University of Porto, Portugal, on September 24th, 2018.