Adaptation in doubt

Abstract

In a sense, Ghosh argues, novelists are imaginatively impaired — or deranged — by the climate issue, which appears somehow otherworldly and unnatural. The rest of us, he thinks, similarly partake in this inability to comprehend the astonishing future to which the scientific evidence points. Such derangement naturally encourages indecision and lack of action. Many of us claim we want a different world, yet continue to act in ways that keep the world on the same trajectory.

Even so, most of us also expect that humanity will somehow adapt. We suppose we will find a way because, historically, we always have. But can we really be so confident?