In the face of climate change and other environmental trends, it is easy to be pessimistic about the future. Philosophers, film-makers, environmentalists, politicians and even senior scientists increasingly resort to apocalyptic rhetoric to warn us that a so-called 'perfect storm' of factors is coming together in a way that threatens the future of life on earth. Do these dire predictions amount to nothing more than ideological scaremongering, perhaps hyped up for political or personal ends? Or are there good reasons for thinking that we may indeed be facing a crisis unprecedented in its scale and in the severity of its effects? Jonathan Moo and Robert White encourage us to assess the evidence for ourselves. Their own conclusion is that there is in fact plenty of cause for concern.
