The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be

by J.B. MacKinnon

Daily life for the residents may become more unpleasant and less aesthetic, it may constantly demand innovation and adaptation, but life itself tends to go on with a shrug and a weary smile.

Economists try to place a value on these “ecosystem services,” but the numbers—one pioneering estimate was $33 trillion—are too large to be more than abstractions, and too small to express the reality that we are nowhere close to being able to replace a living world with human technology.