In Plan B 2.0 (W.W. Norton & Co. 2003), Lester Brown discusses the fundamental areas of consumption and behavior that we as a species must address and modify in order to assure our descendents a reasonably satisfactory lifestyle. The days when we can ignore what our individual decisions and lifestyles are doing to the planet have now passed. Personal responsibility for the greater good must become the mark of an informed and conscious people, then instilled rapidly into those yet unaware. “Raising consciousness” has been a motto of the new age through several decades of civil rights, feminine rights and minority rights activism. Though that phrase sounds trite, even passé, to many ears, the concept of setting aside prejudice and bias in order to support a greater good, and a larger view, is vital to our collective well-being in the near future.

These issues of “sustainability” are too critical and pressing to be ignored. The problem is not simple; it includes many of the deeply embedded concepts of modern lifestyles, traditions and thinking. Untrammeled consumption and growth in all areas of life must be re-examined and subjected to critical thought. Material goods are certainly necessary for sustaining life, but just where does success turn into excess? Those are the fundamental ideas we humans must now address. The scientific and technological genius exhibited beginning in the twentieth century has cracked open the lid of the proverbial Pandora’s Box, and released upon the world the very seeds of our destruction. We must act rapidly to bring our viewing of material abundance as a panacea for happiness under control. The greatest philosophic and religious teachings have been ignored and perverted with regards to this issue. May our descendents forgive us these errors as we struggle to bring our fragile planet Earth back into balance.