Planetary problems demand OA

“A major international conference just issued the State of the Planet Declaration (London, March 29, 2012). http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/pdf/state_of_planet_declaration.pdf In the Declaration press release, conference co-chair Mark Stafford Smith explicitly calls for OA to meet urgent planetary problems: ‘[W]e need to provide more open access to knowledge, we need to move away from GDP as the only measure of progress, and we need a new way of working internationally that is fit for the 21st century.’ http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/pdf/State_of_the_Planet_Declaration.pdf The Declaration itself is silent on OA. But Annex 3 (‘from young people representing the voice of youth’) is as explicit as Smith: ‘Where solutions for environmental, economic, and societal problems conflict, we commit to finding better solutions. To start, we propose the following: ...Regulate open access to knowledge in all arenas of business, policy, and science....We promise to: ...Make science more accessible and translatable across sectors and interests so that it can be used for policy making and long term business decisions that will ultimately drive a sustainable society...’ The conference was organized by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, DIVERSITAS, the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, the World Climate Research Programme, and the Earth System Science Partnership. The conference administrator was Elsevier. http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/”