What idea(s) could be more important to our times than those that call us to action to save not just a way of life, but the conditions for life itself. I am very aware of the basic crisis in climate change, the energy problem, economic growth of nations, the inadaquate distribution of wealth and the many other related issues that are compelling in our day. I haven’t read a piece so compelling as this one. So I copy here in whole. I’ll add thoughts and links as an ongoing project.
Original Article here
Even for Americans, constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start – even for us, the world looks a little Terminal right now.
It’s not just the economy. We’ve gone through swoons before. It’s that gas at $4 a gallon means we’re running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society. It’s that when we try to turn corn into gas, it sends the price of a loaf of bread shooting upwards and starts food riots on three continents. It’s that everything is so inextricably tied together. It’s that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on about the “limits to growth” suddenly seem? how best to put it, right.
All of a sudden it isn’t morning in America, it’s dusk on planet Earth.
There’s a number – a new number – that makes this point most powerfully. It may now be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
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