Introduction : a global environmental tragedy -- A perfect moral storm -- A consumption tragedy -- Somebody else's problem -- In the shadow of a common tragedy -- The tyranny of the contemporary -- An intergenerational arms race? -- A global test for political institutions and theories -- Cost-benefit paralysis -- Jane Austen vs. climate economics -- Geoengineering in an atmosphere of evil -- Conclusion : the immediate future -- Postscript : some initial ethics of the transition -- Appendix 1 : the population tragedy -- Appendix 2 : epistemic corruption and scientific uncertainty in Michael Crichton's state of fear