ABSTRACT
Presently, the Earth is poised to erupt into a neo-Carboniferous era if trends in greenhouse gas releases continue, the inevitable result being the final destruction of those stable biogeochemical cycles which began to emerge 300 million years ago. The central argument of today's writers on environment, ecology, and ethics, is that the moral ethos that dominates capitalist pursuits since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution adheres to an anthropocentric view of the world. The highly visible signs of global climate change in recent years will contribute further to the credibility of the theory and need for adopting Gaian ethics. There is a growing school of thought suggesting that through focused educational reform that addresses ecological knowledge as a civic matter, humanity will become more deeply sensitive to the interrelatedness between people and planet, and their understanding will engender a greater spirit of mutualistic symbiosis with nature and the global commons.
