Environmental and Urban Economics

The New York Times has published an interesting piece  by William Gail.  He argues that we can't adapt to "unknown unknowns" because we are not prepared to handle them.  On one level he is correct but on another level this claim is false.  For generations, readers have loved reading science fiction.  Authors such as Jules Verne and Issac Asimov expanded our imagination with their visions of our future.   We live at a time of unprecedented literacy (billions of people) and unprecedented access to information curated by Google. 

There are countless scientists and popular writers seeking to build a reputation for publishing interesting writing.