Out of control: How we failed to adapt and suffered the consequences

International events, economic changes, and the impacts of climate change will test the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River basin over the next five decades. The region's ability to effectively meet these challenges will require foresight, investment, and cooperation. As a contribution to this special issue, this paper presents one plausible 50-year scenario of the emergence of these challenges and the region's response to them. In it, early signs of economic, environmental, and governmental vulnerability are not adequately addressed. Investments aren't made to provide needed funding for monitoring and evaluation. The region's intellectual and environmental capital isn't leveraged, limiting the region's ability to address its economic and environmental challenges and compete with the rest of the world. The pursuit of local self-interest and short-term survival outweighs cooperation across jurisdictions and long-term planning. The vision of the future presented here is one in which the region's economy is dependent on stagnant extractive industries, its ecosystems are compromised, and its global standing is greatly reduced. In response to all of these developments, by 2063 hopelessness and violent tension is spreading throughout the region's population.