sure. but the human world is consuming environmental capital (e.g. fish stocks, easily accessible fossil fuel reserves, soil, space in the atmosphere to harmlessly store pollution) at a rate that isn&#x27;t anywhere near sustainable. as we continue to burn through this environmental capital over the next decade or two things will probably continue to get better on average, in terms of material standard of living, until things start to collapse.<p>i think negative things really grab our attention once they&#x27;re happening and we&#x27;re feeling the immediate pain. i don&#x27;t think negative things that will happen in the future sufficiently grab our attention (otherwise we wouldn&#x27;t be running society this way - a way that dramatically limits our options a few decades down the line - would we?)