Exploring the Roots of the Environmental Crisis: Opportunity for Social Transformation

Abstract

The environmental crisis is the canary in the mineshaft of modern society. Miners, in previous generations, checked the quality of air in a mine by lowering a canary in a cage into a mineshaft. If the canary came back up alive the miners would go into the mine; if the canary came back dead the miners would not proceed as the mine was dangerous and unsafe. The environmental crisis is playing a similar role for people in modern society. For example, plants and animals are becoming extinct in unprecedented numbers, the oceans’ fisheries are in decline, water is increasingly polluted, and even the air we breathe - so called ‘fresh air’ - is frequently smog (air contaminated by industrial and agricultural pollutants). Further, industrial processes have released toxins upon Earth which have altered the environment so severely that the reproductive capabilities of animals (including the human) are affected (see for example Colborn, Dumanoski and Myers, 1999). These events are informing us in quite clear terms that the generativity of Earth and the social structures dependent upon it are in peril. Through the environmental crisis the Earth is reacting to human behaviour and is warning us - perhaps beseeching us - to respond.