When You Find Yourself in a Hole, Stop Digging: Comments on Earth Systems Engineering

In an earlier “Forum” article in this journal, Brad Allenby outlined his views of a new approach to managing the unintended consequences of human activity, “earth systems engineering.” He argues that we must develop the tools, institutions, and moral and ethical systems to allow us to “assume an active management role for most global systems.” I believe this to be a significant departure from a core concept of industrial ecology: learning from ecosystems how the natural world operates to be able to more effectively design and manage coupled human‐natural systems. Such lessons are more likely to lead away from tightly managed, centralized approaches, and favor approaches with as little intervention as feasible. More important, I believe that we are far less likely to learn how to implement earth systems engineering than simpler approaches, hence less likely to minimize environmental damage.