The United Nations Environment programme’s (UNEP) Year Book 2009 presents work in progress on scientific understanding of global environmental change, as well as foresight about possible issues on the horizon. The aim is to raise awareness of the interlinkages among environmental issues that can accelerate the rates of change and threaten human wellbeing. The chapters of the Year Book track the same trajectory as our awareness of environmental change. Transformations are inherent to this trajectory and are taking place on many fronts: from industrial agriculture to eco-agriculture, from a wasteful society towards a resource efficient one, and from a triad of competing interests among civil society, the private sector, and governments to a more cooperative model based on mutual benefits.