ABSTRACT
Many are the reasons to be pessimistic in these times. A bleak black is the color of our future, if we accept the message supported by authoritative studies—for example, the one from the Stockholm Resilience Centre (Rockström and Klum, 2012), which tells us that three of the nine planet boundaries that guarantee the survival of our biosphere—climate change, biological diversity, and nitrogen input—have already been transgressed. Change analyses by governmental agencies, such as the U.S. National Intelligence Council’s 2010 report (2012), also point out that, by 2030, severe weather patterns will intensify climate instability, further diminish already scarce water supplies, cause dramatic food scarcities, and contribute to major economic and political systemic changes. These two forecasts, along with countless others, indicate that we are heading toward an imminent economic, sociocultural systemic and environmental breakdown.
