Exiting Eden

Abstract

Abstract Mythical accounts of humanity’s descent from a blissful early age of natural abundance to one of agricultural toil are common to many cultures and religions. Curiously, the scientific literature on the Neolithic Revolution paints a similar picture of the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies, albeit one attributed to natural forces rather than human frailty or the caprice of gods. This concluding chapter argues that contemporary, anthropogenic climate change may force a second “fall,” this time from the fecund stability of the Holocene to an era marked by extreme scarcity, conflict, and collapse. If we are to walk back from this precipice of despair—if we are to avert politically catastrophic climate change—we must commit ourselves both to unprecedented action and a radical rethinking of the political norms, practices, and institutions that brought us to this point.