The Earth Story and the Civilization Story

There are two large stories, not one, underway in our lives. The one we hear most about is the story of human civilization; the unfolding story of world events, life in our community, and how we and our immediate circle of relationships participate in this story. This story so occupies what we call “news” that the second large story seems only for specialists who study it. It is the story of the Earth, our planetary home. This story, studied and told by life scientists, geologists, anthropologists, and paleontologists, is really the much larger, older, and dynamic of the two stories. It is, in fact, the larger context in which the human story happens. But for the majority of us, it is a secondary story—like a specialty shop for the few rather than a supermarket for the many.

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Economic Growth—A Saving Deity or Life-Threatening Cancer?

In the past 25 years Growth has risen in the pantheon of financial deities. Our economy depends on it so much that the financial sector and government have changed the rules to allow more and more phantom products to be created—all to keep the market indicators growing. But on a planet created with limits, releasing Growth from limits gives worship to a deity who will destroy us, not save us.

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