ABSTRACT
We live in troubled and turbulent times. A hurricane is raging from the mouth of industrial culture, rending the fabric of life’s web, undermining the earth’s ecological systems, eradicating species, billowing pollution, depleting resources and crushing communities, and sparking war, terrorism, racism, disease and poverty, and leaving an uninhabitable wasteland in its wake. Our current trajectory of capitalism and consumerism is leading straight down the road to oblivion. Despite the obvious signs of environmental and cultural decline, the crisis is intensifying. In 1993 the Union of Concerned Scientists (https://www.ucsusa.org) released the following statement as a caution to humanity:
This statement was issued more than ten years ago, and yet still humanity plunges into the abyss. How much time is left before the eradication of all life-supporting systems? The big picture does not look good: 137 species disappear every day; 6 billion pounds of toxic insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and other biocides are pumped into the environment every year (Global Toxics Initiative, 2003); the temperature of the planet is expected to rise by 10 degF during this century (Earth Trends, 2003); and world population growth (currently at 6.8 billion) is expected to reach a staggering 10 billion by the year 2050 (Population Action International, 2003).
