The study of environmental matters on a global scale provides a series of unique problems and priorities in order to accomplish genuine innovation and social change. There is a need to conceptualize and understand the differential boundaries between natural and social systems. Three types of problems to be dealt with range from cultural perceptions of nature, to attempts to regulate and manipulate the environment, to questions about the receptivity of various groups to new technologies. Habits of thought need to be challenged in the area of how to interpret change. Many research questions must look into the future for long term changes and solutions encompassing a century or more, rather than limited time-frames of years and decades. This more evolutionary time-frame requires new and different concepts and units of analysis. For example, when climate is examined in a longer-term perspective major changes are found within the last 1000 years along with important variations within centuries. In addition, today's science and technology must not be recognized as universal, neutral, and value free but as a product of western culture. Some priorities for future environmental studies include the conscious attempt to place research in a larger overall time span and to become sensitive to the various cultural interpretations of science and technology. (DE)