Few will doubt that humankind has created a planet-sized problem for itself. No one wished it so, but we are the first species to become a geophysical force, altering Earth's climate, a role previously reserved for tectonics, sun flares, and glacial cycles. We are also the greatest destroyer of life since the ten-kilometer-wide meteorite that landed near Yucatan and ended the Age of Reptiles sixty-five million years ago. Through overpopulation we have put ourselves in danger of running out of food and water. So a very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic.


p. 277-278. - Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998)


Few will doubt that humankind has created a planet-sized problem for itself. No one wished it so, but we are the first species to become a...

Few will doubt that humankind has created a planet-sized problem for itself. No one wished it so, but we are the first species to become a...