Ruben Zondervan

TL;DR: The United Nations conference in Rio de Janeiro in June is an important opportunity to improve the institutional framework for sustainable development and requires fundamental reorientation and restructuring of national and international institutions toward more effective Earth system governance and planetary stewardship.

TL;DR: The Earth System Governance Project (ESGP) as discussed by the authors is a 10-year global research effort endorsed by the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), which aims to develop strategies for Earth System management.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the current institutional framework for sustainable development is by far not strong enough to bring about the swift transformative progress that is needed, and that the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro must turn into a major stepping stone for a much stronger institutional framework.

TL;DR: The Radically Inter- and Trans-disciplinary Environments (RITE) framework as discussed by the authors proposes a framework for funding excellence in interdisciplinary studies, which includes the need for a realignment of funding strategies to ensure that national and international research bodies and programmes road-map their respective strengths and identified areas for radical interdisciplinary research; then ensure that these areas can and are appropriately funded and staffed by talented individuals who want to apply their creative scientific talents to broader issues than their own field in the long term, rather than on limited scope (5 year and less).

TL;DR: A literature review reveals that this crisis concerns definitional issues, issues of ownership and access, boundary issues, the multiple uses of water, and the levels at which water should be managed as mentioned in this paper.