The End of the World As We Know It? The rise of the post-carbon
era Arts & Culture, The Cutting Edge - Posted on Monday,
September 20, 2010 0:30 - 20 Comments Only 500 generations ago,
hunter-gatherers began cultivating crops and forming their tiny
communities into social hierarchies. Around 15 to 20 generations
ago, industrial capitalism erupted on a global scale. In the
last generation, the entire human species, along with virtually
all other species and indeed the entire planet, have been thrown
into a series of crises, which many believe threaten to converge
in global catastrophe: global warming spiraling out of control;
oil prices fluctuating wildly; food riots breaking out in the
South; banks collapsing worldwide; the spectre of terror
bombings in major cities; and the promise of ‘endless war’ to
fight ‘violent extremists’ at home and abroad. We are running
out of time. Without urgent mitigating, preventive and
transformative action, these global crises are likely to
converge and mutually accelerate ove