Conclusion

AuthorJamie Benidickson
Pages433-436
433
CONCLUSION
The OECD in a major report Environmental Outlook to 2050: The Con-
sequences of Inaction projected signif‌icant population and economic
growth to the mid–twenty-f‌irst century, giving rise to severe environ-
mental threats in terms of water availability, adverse public health
impacts, disr uptive climate change, and biodiversity loss. In the OECD’s
assessment, “progress on an incremental, piecemeal, business-as-usual
basis in the coming decades will not be enough.”1 That prediction is
underscored by more recent studies documenting dr amatic global losses
of wilderness and biodiversity or conf‌irming the urgency of vigorous
engagement with climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
In these circumstances, to contemplate a future for environmental
law — even in general ter ms — is something of a cau se for celebrat ion. It
is also to acknowledge defeat. This paradox derives from sharply diver-
gent perceptions of the eff‌icacy of law as a response to environmental
problems. For those who anticipated ecological apocalypse some time
ago, mere survival must constitute something of a success, while from
the perspective of those who have championed one legal innovation
after another as the magic answer, the continuation of struggle against
environmental degrad ation will be something of a setback. But so it will
be, a future much like the past, in which a wide range of instruments
1 OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050: The Conse quences of Inaction (OE CD Pu b-
lishing, 2012) at 19, online: www.oecd.org/env/indicators-modelling-outlooks/
oecd-environmental-outlook-1999155x.htm.

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