Over the last 200 years, humanity has become a major, global force, and our actions are upsetting the dynamic balance of many social and ecological systems. This section looks at regional and global problems associated with human activity, and potential solutions.

Satellite photo of Earth at night.

Problems like climate change are a direct consequence of physical changes in the global ecosystem, but they also have deep social and economic roots. A central theme in this section is that many of the problems we face are reflections of the industrialized world view and lifestyles that isolate people from nature and from each other.