When my children were in school, as when I was in school, one of the big things in history class was learning the causes of, and events leading up to, different wars. I am fully convinced that, in a similar vein, future generations of school children will learn the causes of, and events leading up to, the great collapse of major ecological systems and the environmental shifts of the 21st Century. The results of these catastrophic events in terms of human misery, particularly in Africa, will surely be no less gut wrenching than those of the great World Wars and some of the more recent genocides.
As always, kids will have to learn the major players; the countries and political leaders who made a significant contribution to the outcome, for good or bad. It is difficult not to imagine that the U.S.A., Canada, China and India will be singled out as bad guys in the history books. I think the chances are good that the names Stephen Harper, Barack Obama and Peter Kent will be referenced and remembered for things other than how they would like to be remembered.
Playing off the economy against the environment will be seen as a false dichotomy that even school children will grasp so easily that they will marvel at the depths of selfish stupidity of these leaders and the people who elected them because "
it's about the economy, Stupid." The right, balanced combination of environment and economy are as inseperable and critical as the right combination of oxygen and hydrogen for the formation of water.
The best and most obvious metaphor, I would think, is Aesop's fable about the goose that laid the golden eggs. In the long term, keeping the goose healthy has to be a more important priority than trying to extract ever more and more golden eggs to the detriment of the goose. Some people don't get it; others refuse to get it; yet others choose to put their trust in the first two groups instead of thinking for themselves.
