ABSTRACT
Editors’ note This chapter is unlike most of the others, in that although it is looking at how present human actors interact with their future, its concern is not so much prediction as an attempt to construct the outlines of a conceptual theory of how we can or should address an unpredictable future. Its specific concern is with the inadequacy of economics to address the issues which environmental change raises. It sees economics as trapped in a Newtonian physics-based model —which in a sense therefore dismisses time, in that fundamental parameters are assumed not to change while equilibrium is attained. It therefore proposes a model for economics based more on evolutionary biology-in which it is recognised that there are fundamental and unpredictable evolutionary changes in the technological base of society, which human actors recognise, and which limit their scope for action. The authors’ conclusion is that the existing system of economic liberalism cannot be expected to cope with environmental challengesa point which Max Wallis also touched upon. Although the authors do not come up with a new system to replace the old, they do systematically address some of the main issues to be faced.
