Contextual Instability: The Making and Unmaking of Environment.

The environment and its resources are of fundamental importance for complex societies. Inadequate environmental governance may thereby lead to human suffering including armed conflict, while incapacity to adapt to environmental change has contributed throughout history to the collapse of complex societies. These threats exist in the anthropocene as well, where they are possibly even more pronounced. Environmental engineering technologies such as geo-engineering and synthetic biology add a new challenge by allowing modification of the environment from micro- to global scales in ways and at a scope unprecedented in history. "Making our environment" is truer now than ever before. However, risks of unintentional and cascading consequences can contribute to the unmaking of global society, if the defining characteristics of the new era are not appreciated.