ABSTRACT
Making sustainable choices is not just a matter of either understanding how society adapted in the past, or deciphering the volumes of accumulated data that are available globally. The human factor must also be considered. Humans have biases and values that influence what data we select to include in our decision-making processes. Humans have a tendency to include their biases or values as part of the database used to make assessments. This is similar to addressing the simple problem of needing to water a plant so it does not wilt by adding information on ocean temperatures because it is one's specialty (Figure 10.1). These biases are typically not explicitly stated in our assessments, or may not be very clear to a decision-maker. They generally revolve around where people live, such as whether they are urban or rural residents, and the assumption that high population densities equate to lower global-carrying capacity as resources become over-exploited. These ‘facts' do not take into consideration the long history humans have of being able to adapt to their environment or in some cases of adapting their environment to suit their needs. People do not just ‘flee’ conditions that reduce their survival potential, but adjust their behaviour to compensate for the limits of each environment.
