For hundreds of years, and in particular since the Industrial Revolution began, humans have improved their standard of living with improved housing and sanitation, improved food and water accessibility, improved technology providing heating, comfort, travel, entertainment and improved working conditions.
But all of this has come at a cost to the Environment.
It has been common practice throughout the globe to treat the land, sea and air as if it belongs solely to humans and is there to be consumed or used by whoever can claim the right to do so. The Earth has been treated as if it is one global supermarket where humans can help themselves to minerals, wood, building materials such as stone, gravel and sand, land for agriculture, and many more resources. The sea has been treated as a dustbin. The air has been taken for granted.
Little if any thought is given to the ecosystem.
All of this is about to change.
Greta Thunberg was right when she screamed "How Dare you" to the Economic Forum. She was right when she told it that the desire for never-ending economic growth was fantasy.
The fact of the matter is that improvements to quality of life cannot continue forever as global resources are not unlimited. And there is most definitely a "tipping point" when the environmental damage done by modern human "growth" outweighs the benefits of that growth.
Quite simply, further economic growth will damage the quality of human life as it pollutes the environment, damages the natural ecosystem (e.g. extinction of species) and ultimately harms the quality of life of those (humans) at the top of the ecosystem pyramid.
It is inevitable. The quality of life on this planet is about to darken for humans. Global recession is coming. And it won't just be something you hear about on the news channels. You will feel it too.
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