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Threshold, the Crisis of Western Culture
by Thom Hartmann. 2009. Viking Press. 268p.
In 1998 in Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, Thom Hartmann, surveyed the
history of human civilizations and our exploitation of fossil fuels or ancient
sunlight. This popular, widely read book exposed how early cultures damaged and
destroyed their environments. It emphasized that our increasing excessive
reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable.
In Threshold, he examines our current situation. As background, he argues
that western culture has made four major mistakes. We have utilized linear
processes, rather than circular ones as occur in nature. We have relied on
mistaken economic models. We have abused and subverted women. We have depended
on weapons, threats and warfare to settle disputes.
These mistakes have generated three large, complex problems that now threaten
us. We confront environmental problems: especially, soil loss, collapsing
fisheries, loss of rain forests, and perhaps most daunting, global warming. We
are enmeshed in an economic crisis. Finally, human population growth
makes these other problems worse by creating demands in excess of our planet’s
resources. These problems provide thresholds or opportunities for dramatic
change.
As models, he cites Denmark for its high quality of life for all citizens and
Caral, Peru, where human fossils and artifacts suggest that the residents
enjoyed 1000 years of peace. Because serious economic depressions in our history
have been followed by war and revolution, change will occur.
Will we be able to seize these opportunities to transform our culture? Can we
induce healing change in harmony with the Earth? This volume helps us understand
the issues, an essential basis for moving forward.
Review written December 3, 2009.
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