The quest to understand society and nature: Looking back, but mostly forward

Millennial transitions have long been occasions for reflection and anticipa tion. This brief article seizes on one such occasion, the coming of the yea r 2000, to reject on the knowledge we have accumulated in understanding hum an-nature interactions and to speculate about strategies that might best ad vance this under standing. It argues for a second environmental science whe re the central focus is on human-environment interactions. It further argue s that the second environmental science can best be realized via interdisci plinary approaches that are more attentive to the integration of ecology an d related sciences with the social sciences.