Thought for the Week

Addicted to oil as if it were crack, we are chopping down the world's tropical forests at an astounding rate--as much as 1 or 2 percent a year. When modern civilization finishes draining the world's resources, when this house of cards collapses, we will see ourselves stripped down to our essence and whimper for forgiveness like third-grade bullies caught by our teachers, unable to comprehend what went wrong. Against the floods, genetic pollution, bacterial onslaughts, radioactive infernos unleashed by human stupidity or aggrieved nature, our technologies will pop like toy guns. Watch the fun as the stock markets continue to seek profit, down to the last seconds of recorded history, betting on the margin calls of disaster relief and reinsurance agencies.

What is 'profit' anyway? What is the greed that is motivating the frenzied humanity to destroy the planet and degrade itself? If a media mogul pockets so many hundreds of millions a year while leaving his children and grandchildren a world without clean air, Amazonian jungles, the purple splendor of coral reefs, or animals, where is his profit? If a chemical corporation profits by spreading toxins across the globe that will rematerialize as cancer in the flesh of their own anxious stockholders, where is the profit? To what Martian retreat or Lunar Club Med do these madmen--ourselves!--see themselves retreating when they have finished f--king this planet like an old whore?
--Daniel Pinchbeck, Breaking Open the Head