This first volume of the MultiScience Journal, dedicated to the theme The Future of Resources, includes five articles discussing aspects of the limits and the future of biodiversity, hydric systems, energy resources and discourses that sustain the arguments presented.

As a whole, these five articles fulfill one of the principal proposals of the Journal – to bring to light and open to discussion the various forms of reflecting on an interdisciplinary question, “the future of resources”, providing an academic debate stimulated by the articles presented here.

The first two articles deal with biodiversity. The first, “Causes of Biodiversity Loss: a Human Ecological Analysis”, by L. Hens & E. K. Boon, presents definitions of biodiversity, taking into consideration the Convention on Biological Diversity and the various concepts that revolve around it, such as the diversity of species, genetic diversity and the diversity of the ecosystems. It also presents the factors that in this area are being considered as causes for the loss of biodiversity, the common element being human activity, seen from a social, cultural, economic and ethical point of view. In this analysis, information on demographic changes, consumption and poverty are presented and evaluated in function of public policies on various levels, pointing out their limitations, such as the incapacity of incorporating environmental values and the difficulties of imposing monetary policies, among others. The review by Hens & Boon, sufficiently ample and profound, embraces the neoclassical views as well as those of the political economy, showing the contributions of both approaches.
The second article, “Natural Resources, Biodiversity, Integrated Management and Regulation: general considerations and discussion”, by M. G. Paoletti & D. Pimentel, is a study that analyzes both the knowledge of as well as the use of biodiversity. The still insufficient knowledge of biodiversity is pointed out as one of the limits to the comprehension of environmental resources and to their management in a manner that would avoid their loss. Various examples of sub-utilization of biodiversity are presented, including agriculture, consumption and inventories of species. In this case, the citation taken from articles by Alfred Russel Wallace regarding harvests in the XIX century and the question that relates the capability to inventory the nature and coloration of the species are illustrative. The review is enriched with various examples of Asia and America, pointing out as one of its conclusions the need to stimulate actions that will reduce the decline of natural resources, including educational programs and the protection of local cultures.

“Recursos Hídricos” (Hydric Resources) is the third article in this volume. In it, J.G. Tundisi takes into consideration worldwide and Brazilian data, offering a wealth of information related to hydric balance, the consumption of water and to forecasts. The impacts produced on the ecosystems by human activities are evaluated in detail, calling attention to the construction of dams and dikes, to drainage, deforesting, pollution, acid rain and the presence of heavy metals, the removal of biomass, introduction of exotic species, climatic changes and the growth of population and consumption. The availability of hydric resources, whether in relation to their quantity or to their distribution, is evaluated in function of food production and of urban and health problems. The article consistently presents the need for integrated management, be it sectorial, local or in answer to hydric resource crises, on ecosystem level, thus permitting anticipation and prediction.

The fourth article, “Recursos Energéticos, Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento” (Energy Resources, Environment and Development), by E.P. Silva, J.C. Camargo, A. Sordi and A.M.R. Santos, presents information and data that allow comprehension of the past, the present and also the predictions for the future of humanity in relation to the production and use of energy. We find information on the evolution of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, on the emission of aerial pollutants, among others, with respect to the impact of the use of non-renewable sources of energy, with emphasis on the emission of particles in the atmosphere. According to the authors, until the industrial era, the solid phase (wood and coal) predominated. Petroleum then inaugurated the liquid phase and the gaseous phase (hydrogen) is now delineated on the horizon. The article also presents in detail the perspectives of new sources of energy, or new technologies for the generation of energy, taking into consideration the Kyoto Protocol and the impacts of energy production.

Finally, we close this edition with the article “Os Recursos do Futuro: uma questão de discurso” (Resources of the Future: a question for discussion), by E.P. Orlandi, in which the author discusses various statements regarding the future and the limits of resources, whether in science, public policies or communications networks. The author attempts to destabilize the crystallized perceptions found in the enunciation of “The future of resources”. She begins by inverting the formulation, thus creating the title of her article, enouncing “The resources of the future”, in such a way as to bring into evidence, in the relation already established by the words that people have been accustomed to speak, the crystallized meanings constructed by a social-historical memory, that fix a transparent relation between the word and its reference, maintaining an effect of evidence of what is said when we enounce “The future of resources”. Within the various discursive spaces in which this enunciation is presented, the author identifies man as the cause of the soon-to-come lack of resources and not as a constituent part of the resources that must be cared for, constructed or even preserved.

In these different manners of reflecting on the theme proposed by this volume, the future of resources, we see ample preoccupation with extinction, with public policies in terms of handling resources, with their availability and distribution; the proposition of the need to educate, to promote ethical changes, to promote changes in consumption habits, as well as greater integration and foresight in analyses regarding resources; and, finally, reflection on what is meant when we speak of the future, resources and limits.

This edition of the Journal also brings three book reviews on varied themes, since it is also our proposal to offer space for reviews in all areas of knowledge, without direct connection to the theme of the edition. In this volume, reviews on The Lugano Report, by S. George, published in France in 1999 and presented at the Social Forum in Porto Alegre in 2002, deals with the excluding effects of globalization; The evolution of communication, by M. D. Hauser, published in 2000, deals with communication in the animal kingdom based on an evolutionary psychology approach; and Modernity and identity, by A. Giddens, published in 2002, dealing with the constitution of modern societies in relation to globalization, imprinting specificity to the singular aspects of the existence of each individual.

As we close this first edition, we hope to reach readers from a wide academic public and receive their participation in the spaces opened by the Journal.