Most interesting to me for these two chapters was the overlying themes of "opening up" and "letting go". Looking back at my notes, I am not sure if I read the exact words "monkey trap" here, but I have come across the term or idea in several readings lately. We, like the proverbial monkey, cling to the fruit (the American Dream, BAU, prosperity as growth), seemingly gripping tighter to avoid letting go - even though exogenous threats creep closer and closer to us. Examples of this are all around: electric cars, biofuels, the "information economy", and the like. Anxiety over resource depletion and pollution drives many to come up with solutions or ways to try and mitigate against these threats. I have observed this general thought pattern and reaction in many of my fellow environmental thinkers and bloggers: First we grip tighter to hold on to the world that we grew up in, thinking "well, we've overcome adversity in the past, and ingenuity has triumphed over the past 150 years. We can do this!" We rant and rave (as my advisor puts it "wave our arms") at the world, promoting "green" living and technology. However, as we delve deeper into the issues, examining the complexity in our lives and the world around us, our faith in growth and ingenuity fades, and slowly our grip on the fruit begins to loosen. This is directly related to the concept of ignorance. Many academics, as well as the self-taught, delve deeply into proposed solutions for our existing environmental and social threats. As we learn, and as the general knowledge on the issue expands, new areas of ignorance are discovered and we move from closed to open ignorance on the subject. Some are driven to give up "changing the world" and focus more on personal development - a few are successful in letting go of the growth as prosperity mantra, and find new avenues of personal growth, enlightenment, and happiness. For those still "in the fight", especially we as academics face an upward battle, as the inertia of our Faustian world is immense - for as difficult as it is to let go of our banana, it is far easier than convincing others, and in theory everyone else, to let go of theirs.
Pushing the boundaries of knowledge, especially of area revealed as prior ignorance, is a difficult frontier. This is true of environmental economics especially, as it is difficult to let go of many of the tenets of economics that, until recently, worked well to improve the lives of not all, but many. Like Faber et al. say, we must let go to be able to move forward.
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