Introduction

The Earth System may be the most complex entity that ever emerged in our galaxy and the contemporary process of globalisation may be the most intricate dynamics that will ever pervade that entity: it is the interactive co-evolution of millions of technological, cultural, economic, social and environmental trends at all conceivable spatiotemporal scales that brings about the present fundamental transformation of humanity’s way of life. In this text the authors make the heroic effort to tame the complexity of modern planetary development by the intellectual concept of transition. In this work, four major issues are discussed that are of global importance: developments related to two of our key natural resources; water and biodiversity; the health of human populations; and the developments related to global tourism.