ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of debates about scarcity and environmental limits from the 18th century to the present. It demonstrates that these debates have been characterized by two general perspectives: those that see limits as absolute, or immutable to social change; and those that see them as relative to a given socio-economic system. It shows how the terms of this debate have shifted with climate change and the proposed advent of the Anthropocene, from a focus on resource scarcity to critical thresholds of environmental change. The question of environmental limits is therefore charged with renewed import in the contemporary moment.
