Geoengineering and the Evolution of Dueling Precautions
Abstract:
2018 witnessed the release of a number of films depicting a new kind of future dystopia. Instead of the usual... horrors of future dystopias, we have begun to see an increasing emphasis on humans surviving in a world with no natural ecosystems left intact. For example, the new Blade Runner film takes place in a future with no remaining trees – not one – and artificial sources of nutrition instead of agriculture...
Seeing healthy surviving protagonists living in a future with a completely-destroyed planet is perhaps the greatest fictional aspect of these films, and yet it is the least noticed. Because of our dependence on ecosystem services for survival, biodiversity is more than just our canary, it is the entire coal mine around us. In other words, we will not be able to save ourselves after failing to save everything else.
