Interesting perspective in the eco-disaster genre from 1995. Establishes that humans are the only species to have separated from local ecosystems through culture, defined as the ability to use our brains to make tools and to leverage the odds of our survival by taking control of our food supply thus separating us from the limits of biology and the ecosystem. Having made this separation we then went on to create stories about how glorious we were and how God told us we were to have dominion over the earth. Asks the question "can nature and culture co-exist?"
Presents the conclusion that we will not escape the limitations of the ecosystem, it's just not going to be a local catastrophe, but a global one. Due to the global nature of our economic system we have to exploit all the corners of the earth before we will know that there's nothing left to feed us.
Joins the chorus of authors urging us to tell new stories of cooperation with nature and stewardship of the earth. Is this a job for the bigger brain?
Labels: collapse, culture, ecology
