Dossier Océan et énergie - Énergie Thermique des Mers

Sommaire IOA News Letters

The UNESCO EOLSS Project : An Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems

Michel Gauthier
IOA Core Group chairman

On November 18, 1992, as part of the "United Nations Conference on Environment and Development" held in Brazil (sometimes referred to as the "Earth Summit"), the most eminent world scientists from 70 countries, including more than 100 Nobel Price Laureates, addressed an urgent warning to government leaders and citizens of all nations. That warning concerned the growing fragility of the Earth's life support systems. The warning said that "the environment is suffering critical stress. ...Our massive tampering with the world's interdependent web of life--coupled with the environmental damage which is inflicted by deforestation, species loss, and climate change--could trigger widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable collapses of critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics we only imperfectly understand." The warning also stressed that "no nation industrialised or not, can escape injury when global biological systems are damaged", and when lack of resources generates economic instabilities and conflicts. In its recommendation Agenda 21, the Conference declared that "the growth of population and production combined with unsustainable consumption patterns places increasingly severe stress on the life supporting capacities of our planet".

In that context, "life support systems" or LSS, are any natural or human-engineered systems that further life in the biosphere in a sustainable fashion. The fundamental common attribute of LSS is that, together, they provide all of the sustainable needs required for continuance of life. These needs, that go far beyond biological requirements, encompass natural environments as well as social components like safety, nutrition, medical care, economic standards, etc. Since its establishment, the IOA has contributed to reinforcing and disseminating the idea that OTEC and DOWA are potential significant components of LSS (see IOA Charter and Brochure; "Introduction to IOA", IOA Newsletter Vol 8, N 2, Page 6).

Since the "Earth Summit", many other international forums have contributed to the definition of LSS and raised awareness of the concept of sustainable development. The Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems(EOLSS)--a UNESCO project--that aims to present a comprehensive,authoritative, and integrated body of knowledge on Life Support Systems, is a major contribution to these efforts.

Features, structure and content of the EOLSS