ABSTRACT
A number of the contributors to this handbook fear that vested interests, national rivalries and path dependency, as well as blinkered vision, a sense of powerlessness and selfi sh discounting of the longer-term future will prevent us from making the necessary deep and rapid emissions cuts (see e.g. Perrow, Clémençon, Ockwell et al.). Yet while success may prove elusive, so long as nature continues to respond to our ‘business as usual’ with accelerating climate change, efforts to transform our production, consumption and technology will surely continue. Many chapters in this volume are concerned with the political, social and economic factors hindering or facilitating such developments. This chapter is a brief speculation on what might be the social and cultural consequences of such attempts.
