Geoengineering and the Evolution of Dueling Precautions
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Geoengineering and the Evolution of Dueling Precautions
- Kalyani Robbins
Abstract
2018 witnessed the release of a number of films depicting a new kind of future dystopia. Instead of the usual portrayal of psychological, technological, and political 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. In the recent Spielberg film Ready Player One, people must escape into a virtual reality world because the real world is unlivable, having been stripped of all natural resources and devastated by climate change. This trend in depressing entertainment reflects both an increased awareness of the extremely serious environmental issues facing our planet (including biodiversity loss and climate change) and a complete failure to appreciate our dependence on a functioning planet, and its associated ecosystem services, in order to survive. Without ecosystem services life doesn’t simply become unpleasant – it is over. 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.