Actions and Reactions

Abstract

This chapter takes a look at some of the most common errors in conventional thinking about the environmental impacts of human activities. Of particular concern is how they lend themselves to a mismatch between the scale of the problems humans face—now of planetary proportions—and typical responses to them. There are no easy answers, no one-size-fits-all solutions. Even with the benefit of increasingly precise information about the state of human systems, earth systems, and the tipping points to be avoided, the science cannot tell us what to do or exactly how to do it. The socio-environmental synthesis framework, however, introduces previously unavailable resources: a consistent way to integrate disciplinarily diverse information and a reliable theory of long-term socio-environmental processes. Together, they suggest entry points for change and a novel approach to addressing our socio-environmental crises.