ABSTRACT
Introduction: historical roots of environmentalism and identity One of the most significant characteristics of the contemporary age is widespread, unrelenting threats to the earth’s life systems. While the term “ecological crisis” can seem like ideological hyperbole, the possibility of a complete breakdown is not completely far-fetched. Consider the statement by Rajenda Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: “We are risking the ability of the human race to survive.” The recent attention to climate change can occlude the many other possible avenues for ecological collapse. Rampant destruction of habitat and biodiversity means ongoing loss of critical ecosystem services upon which all of life depends. Unrelenting and constant assault on ecosystems with synthetic chemicals does not allow for adaptation, resulting in irreparable changes to life support system. The rate of extraction and use of resources, especially clean water, hinders recharge and guarantees complete and rapid depletion. The global changes, moreover, are experienced in specific places by particular people. The climate refugees from the African Sahal, the resident of the US Midwest forced to flee their homes when the natural flood plain could no longer absorb the stress of major storms, residents of the Ukraine still living with the effects of radiation over twenty years after the debacle at Chernobyl, and the residents of northern Iraq unable to access enough clean water from the Tigris-Euphrates because of upstream development projects all know the reality of global ecological crisis in their daily lives.
