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Before the arrival of industrial civilization on this continent, you could breathe the air and drink the water. A short 500 years later, every single mother in the world has dioxin (a chemical commonly called “the most toxic in the world”) in her breast milk, 98% of forests have been destroyed, half of all men and one third of all women now get cancer, and the Colorado River no longer reaches the ocean. Neither wind farms nor a “Solartopia™” will fix any of these things.

We cannot afford to waste any more time or energy. We must confront the reality of our situation, that industrial civilization is predicated on the death of the natural, living world.

For us, the question now becomes; do we want hairdryers, or do we want safe water? Do we want HD televisions, or do we want migratory songbirds? Do we want ten episodes of “The Simpsons” at the click of a mouse, or do we want mountains? Do we want “e-readers,” or do we want a world without lakes of radioactive waste? Do we want our lifestyles of privilege and consumption, or do we want a living planet? Because in spite of our daydreams and delusions, we can’t kill this planet and live on it too.

— Alex Budd: An Open Letter to Fellow Environmentalists (via humanformat)

When a society fails to care for the environment that sustains it,

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revolutionofconsciousness:

when its population increases beyond the capacity of the land and water to provide adequate food for all, and when the unequal distribution of wealth widens into a gulf of social injustice, the result is disaster. The civilization collapses. History is replete with the ruins of civilizations such as the Mayans, Greeks, Incas, and Romans, that failed to recognize the constraints of their environment. Why are we unable to foresee the consequences of our practices?

Although this is true we can provide adequate food and water for all.

(Source: evolution0fconsciousness)

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