The Ecological Imperative

Other civilizations created Altamira, Stonehenge, and Borobudur; ours has produced the shopping mall, the missile silo, and the cooling tank. In the modern world, which has fostered individualism and detached autonomy as fundamental forms of self-definition, no life is sacred because we do not recognize it as such. Modern individuals do not see the Earth as a source of spiritual renewal, but as a stockpile of raw materials to be exploited and consumed. Native Americans say that for whites, every blade of grass and spring of water has a price tag on it. We are bred from birth to be consumers.