Abstract
I am grateful to address you in this, my first communication to the readership of Sustainability and Climate Change in my role as Editor-in-Chief. I am an economist and have experience in financial services, higher education, and the nonprofit sector. Over the past 15 years, I have been a sustainability advocate and view both augmenting our economic system and inclusivity as central to the achievement of sustainability.
Our economic system is a social construction associated with our implicit worldview. Our daily actions reinforce economic theory and assumptions and contribute to the present purpose of our economy—growth. However, this economic model neglects significant aspects of well-being. The exclusion of morality, along with the oversight of our symbiosis, both known and unknown, with the environment, other species, and one another, have contributed to inequity, environmental degradation, species habitat loss, and the climate change impacts we currently face. Yet, even in the realization of this, there has been limited change as regulators focus on consensus and maintain the present perceptions of progress. There is no doubt among a significant portion of global stakeholders that there is a need for communication channels that can disseminate timely, compelling, coalescing, actionable research and commentary on sustainability and present mitigation and adaptation needs specific to the prevailing speed of climate change.
It is with this perception in mind that I am thankful for the opportunity that Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers has given me to develop and influence the direction of Sustainability and Climate Change. There is an urgent need for active discourse on these topics across and within all academic disciplines. I am looking forward to working with the editorial board and the publisher in shaping the future of this Journal.
With Sustainability and Climate Change, we have the opportunity to address the limitations of our present system, acknowledge the history of how we arrived at our current state, discuss the environmental and biological impacts of degradation and the need for both mitigation and adaptation, and evaluate the speed and transitions of our planet as we seek to implement sustainability and stewardship. Simply stated, we have an opportunity to address sustainability and climate change from a multidisciplinary perspective that includes transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary discussion and research.
The speed of climate change is a unifying aspect of life on our planet, but facing the issues, both present and emerging, will require disciplinary inclusivity and a shift to a sustainability worldview. Sustainability and Climate Change offers a platform for disciplinary cooperation and integration aligned to a paradigm shift to sustainability.
Our Journal welcomes submissions that promote a call to action, foster discourse, and facilitate urgency related to behavioral change. We welcome research that is explanatory and provides a foundation for action and policy. As we look ahead, there is a strong need for education that is accessible to all stakeholders and diminishes the value-action gap related to the disconnect between an understanding of sustainability and the action required to enable it. I hope you agree and will assist me in promoting a sustainability worldview with your submissions and readership.
As of April 1, the date I became Editor-in-Chief, we have increased the breadth of submission categories (see Article Types and Policies in Publisher Policies provided in Information for Authors) and instituted a double-blind peer review process. In the near-term, we will focus on developing relationships across disciplines and with relevant academic conferences. In 2022, we will initiate an issue devoted to student submissions. There are additional changes and initiatives planned. Going forward, with each issue, I will share the Journal's progress and traction with respect to being the source of discourse on sustainability and climate change. This is a time for action, and I look forward to our work together.