The ecological consequences of past and projected
changes in the above five categories are as varied as
the categories themselves. The only things that can be
said with certainty are that the ecological responses
will be pervasive, affecting every aspect of the environment,
and that they will be played out in ways and
at scales that will be difficult to predict. Unless there
are sustained improvements in how issues are addressed,
how information is processed into knowledge,
and how wisdom is inserted into policy decisions, one
can expect that variation and uncertainty will be the
norms (Walters 1997, Naiman et al. 1998a).