EDITORIAL Sustainability science demands that we define our terms

other disciplines, some quite disparate. The term includes not only conservation biology, and restora-tion ecology, but also social and cultural fields like economics, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology. Scientists (and others) who aspire to contribute to sustainability studies and practice urgently need to get our inter-professional, transdisciplinary, civic, and societal acts together, as the saying goes. But can scientists really help societies move towards sustain-ability, and if so, how? First, we need to develop a shared set of definitions, methods of communication, and analysis, based on concepts tailored to address the core questions in a common language. We also need to learn how to communicate with non-scien-tists: businessmen and women, journalists, adminis