For many years I have been working to bridge the gap between environmental science, economics, and everyday civic decision-making.
My research focuses on one deceptively simple question: Are we living within the environmental carrying capacity of the places we call home?
To help answer that question, I have engaged in local, regional and global community forums and written guest commentaries focused on helping decision makers find answers to this question.
I am currently in the process of developing evaluation frameworks and practical resources resulting from them that will enable residents, planners, and policymakers to independently assess whether proposed growth, development, and public investments strengthen or weaken long-term ecological resilience.
My goal is to make concepts such as environmental carrying capacity, water resource planning, biodiversity, and systems thinking understandable and usable by ordinary citizens, so that communities can make better-informed decisions before environmental problems become crises.
I believe that protecting the ecological systems that sustain us is not only an environmental imperative but also the foundation for lasting economic prosperity, healthy communities, and the viability of future generations.
If my work can help communities ask better questions and make wiser decisions, then I believe it can contribute, in however small a way, to a more resilient future.
– Cosima Krueger-Cunningham
