It is different for people to grasp just how extreme our ecological crises really are. Problems such as climate change, loss of species, water shortages–are a type of problem that human beings have never faced before, because the problems are global. Personal behavior has never before had global weather consequences. Therefore, there is no historical precedence in this type of problem solving to help us form useful responses. In understanding these problems there are three realities that need to be understood:

1. Our ecological crises are enormous and quickly getting worse.
2. These problems are urgent and time is running out.
3. There are alternatives, and a better future is possible.

“It is an excruciating experience to watch the planet fall apart piece by piece in the face of persistent and pathological denial.” Boiling Point – Ross Gelbspan

Although it is finally beginning to change, the primary problem is that people don’t think there’s much of a problem. There’s no agreement on the basic facts. For 20 years, the oil and coal industries have waged a PR campaign to stop any action on global warming. They have been able to discredit science, making it just one more special interest, and scientific results a matter of opinion, rather than of fact. They have also been able to maintain the public perception that the science of global warming is still unproven. And they have kept the focus on the economy, so that the argument becomes any attempt to lower the use of fossil fuels with “harm the economy.” They have been able to maintain the impression that we can choose between the current situation or changes that will economically impact the fossil fuel industry. They ignore what will happen if we continue to do nothing.

“If we continue down the path we are going, we will produce changes greater than any experienced in the past 300 million years.” Kenneth Caldeira, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.