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Editorial

This is not the place for establishing how much time the human being still has at his
disposal to avoid catastrophe but certainly something should be done and very quickly,
too, though the so-called “times” of the Universe have nothing to do with human times.
But where should we start from? Who has to take the first step? The issue is bigger than
what it should seem at first sight because of both the global implications of the interests
at stake (this is a sad note and maybe unsolvable by far) and the global impact at a
planet level that this should have in terms of drought and energy supplies, overpopulation
and wealth distribution, political and economic power, life space and life in the space,
though not in a Universe perspective. Research abound, commissions are formed,
meetings, debates, conferences and workshops are organized, each of them refuting the
thesis brought out by previous meetings, workshops and conferences. One thing is certain:
though in opposing terms we never talked so much about the Earth before. And such a
state of things dates back to 20 years ago when, in 1987, under the United Nations
mandate, the Brundtland Commission drew up “Our Common Future” Report in
which it established a definition of “sustainable development” combining wealth and
economic growth expectations with respect for the environment and natural resources
safeguard. In this way it opened the floodgate for a debate intertwining science and politics,
technology and economy, ethics and orthodoxy, which has gone through the Rio Summit
(1992) and the long discussed Kyoto Protocol (passed in 1997 but applied only after
2005 without the United States adhesion). Today this latter is still subject of animated
debates to the extent that we cannot but agree with Dante’s definition of the Earth as
«the flowerbed that makes us wild».

To the readers
This issue of Silvae, the CFS scientific journal, comes out later
than scheduled given to delays in the preparation of this publication 7 n.
budget. We apologize to readers, subscribers, and those contributors -
who provide us with food for thought in each journal issue. III
Anno

SILVÆ 9