2005 will mark the start of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The Decade offers a vital opportunity to make real progress toward putting human society on the path to sustainability. More than one-fourth of humankind lives in conditions of chronic poverty. Famine, military conflict, human-rights abuses, environmental degradation and climate change all threaten human dignity -- indeed, survival. The challenges facing us are clear and inescapable.

Sustainable development has been defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It includes such diverse aspects as peace, ecological integrity and human rights, and requires us to reassess our concept of "progress." Education for sustainable development must find a central place across the full spectrum of educational endeavors if it is to provide the opportunity for all people to learn the values, behavior and lifestyles required for positive societal transformation.

Because sustainable development is such a comprehensive concept, it can provide the links across otherwise nonconversant bodies of knowledge, opening up exciting new possibilities for multidisciplinary collaboration and cross-fertilization. But it is especially vital that we focus on children and young people. At the same time, education for sustainable development must actively engage traditional bodies of knowledge and informal sites of learning -- in the family, the factory and the local community.