In an effort to improve prospects for generations to come, a group of ASU scholars in the emerging discipline of environmental humanities is addressing humanity's struggle to think in the long term. The team, which includes sustainability scholars Sally Kitch and Joni Adamson, approaches its work using a combination of humanistic scholarship and scientific research. Their aim is long-term, human-centered solutions that truly transform the way we live and think.

“We have technological advances that could go a long way to solving some of these problems. But we aren't implementing them," says Kitch. "We don't have the political or social will to make the kinds of dramatic changes in our values, in our sense of comfort and well-being in the world, that are really required if we're going to get off of the fossil fuel gravy train that shapes our current political and economic systems.”

Kitch, Adamson and others are working toward their goal through activities like leadership in the international Humanities for the Environment project, which houses its North American Observatory Branch at ASU.