Western Hemisphere Knowledge Partnerships

Abstract

An overarching challenge of the 21st century is the pursuit of an economically equitable balance between an exponentially expanding human system on planet Earth and the finite system of renewable natural resources supporting that human system. The combination of rapidly growing human knowledge and revolutionary technologies for sharing knowledge provides an effective tool for addressing; (1) population growth and (2) gains in individual economic productivity that are driving expansion of the human system. An environmentally sustainable, economically equitable, and socially stable global society is within reach as an array of local and regional communities possessing those characteristics. Western Hemisphere Knowledge Partnerships offer an attractive way to demonstrate the potential of The Knowledge Age to mount an international response to this 21st century challenge.