Over the last seven years or so,papers in this journal have examined the concept of sustainability from various disciplinary perspectives, and have explored some of the international implications of using sustainability as a tool for the analysis of global environmental change. These papers were written, on the whole, by social scientists, or by natural scientists with considerable experience of policy issues. In this viewpoint I want to consider some of the difficulties - and challenges - in confronting the biggest obstacle to the closer collaboration of natural and social scientists. I refer to the fact that while it is physical science perspectives that dominate the policy context of global change, it is the social sciences which provide most of the underlying philosophy of environmental researchers. In addition, of course, the physical sciences dominate both the management and the funding of environmental research. Whether they like it or not, social scientists need to address their brothers and sisters in the natural sciences with some urgency, and to seize the opportunity of new policy challenges,such as global climate change,for the social sciences themselves. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
