Addressing the world’s major problems
- Wits University
Bob Scholes is a Distinguished Professor at the Wits Global Change and Sustainability Research Institute (GCSRI).
The world is at an “incredible juncture” in human history. By 2050, the global population will climax at around 10 billion people, and if our current consumption trends continue, this will not be ecologically sustainable.
This is a message that Professor Bob Scholes, Distinguished Professor at the Wits Global Change and Sustainability Research Institute (GCSRI) in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences believes should be spread far and wide.
“Each one of us has to start limiting our consumption of ecological resources like water, and our emissions to the environment such as carbon dioxide. We can do so without compromising our ability to live well, and by doing so will allow others – in the present and the future – to also have a good life.”
Scholes, who took up the role as Distinguished Professor in January 2015, is a world-renowned scientist in Systems Ecology (particularly on the African Savannas). He has worked on global climate change since 1990.
“My work is in the field of Systems Ecology or ‘big picture ecology’, and my objective is to help address major national and international problems, notably global climate change, global biodiversity loss and land degradation,” says Scholes.
“I’m particularly interested in a field known as Ecosystem Dynamics, which is all about how the ecosystem behaves over time, especially in the presence of disturbances. Are there tipping points or thresholds that we should not cross? Where do they lie? What is on the other side?”
Scholes is one of the lead authors in the assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on present and future impacts of climate change, and how we can adapt to or reduce it.
He also co-led a working group of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), is co-chairing the upcoming global assessment of Land Degradation Assessment, and is co-leader of South Africa’s Strategic Environmental Assessment of Shale Gas Development.
Scholes is confident that nationally and internationally we have the technical solutions to overcome the major ecological problems we face, “but whether we can achieve this politically and socially remains an open question?” he asks.
He sees his new role as developing a new generation of scientists.
“Central to my work is to advance this pipeline at Wits through the growth of a research group of masters and doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows,” he says.