There were so many things that went beyond our models and decision threads and system diagrams. I remembered reading an old paper, a classic of mitigation strategy that framed everything in terms of “ecological services” and the monetary value of forests. How queasy it had made me feel, like calculating the exact value of my time awake with the kids. In the aislands they still thought that way: everything had a price, and anything could be sold away if someone offered enough in exchange.
