Includes bibliographical references and index.

Sustainability: clues for positive societal and ecosystem change -- Learning from the past: why societies collapsed or survived -- Today: decoding country resource stories -- Fossil energy endowments and externalities -- Forests: the backbone and circulatory system for human societies -- The soil and water connection to food: adapt, mitigate or die -- The future: climate change as a global driver impacting sustainability -- Where the past and future meet: soils or the unseen earth that nurtures societies -- The ultimate constraint to human sustainability: solar income -- Debunking sustainability myths -- Portfolio for managing natural and human capital -- Sustainable ecosystems: investments in human and natural capital -- Final thoughts on sustainability unpacked.