The following is an edited version of my Foreword to the book Natural Advantage of Nations, so technically © 2005 by Karlson `Charlie` Hargroves and Michael H. Smith {Eds}. Republished here with their kind permission. - Alan AtKisson

The challenge of sustainability places greater demands on us than is commonly understood. People often speak of "balancing" economic, social, and environmental needs - as though performing a mere tight-rope act, a skillful stroll above the crowd and the safety-net, was all that was required.

But there is no safety-net; to fail is to crash. The crowd cannot just watch; all must participate. And we need far more than balance: we need transformation, a wave of social, technical, and economic innovation that will touch every person, community, company, institution, and nation on the Earth.

Consider the widening abyss between how we run our economies, and what Nature`s systems can tolerate. Consider the rising levels of international tension as the gaps increase between the have-a-lots and the have-not-at-alls, the techno-rich and the food-and-water-poor. Consider that we are losing whole peoples, whole species, whole ecosystems. 
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