&#62; when realistically for 90% of the western population will likely not experience a drastic change to their environment for the next 100 years.<p>Where are you getting this? Americans have already seen a massive change to their environment. The further you can get from a McDonald's in the contiguous united states is 107 miles! [1] Three quarters of the Earth's ice-free land has been reshaped by human actions, and much of the remaining land is barren: only 10% of natural production now occurs in lands that are wild. [2]<p>We are part of a world economy. The mispricing of derivatives of a small portion of loans in America's housing market is effecting nearly all sectors of the world's economy. Today, we are probably hitting peak oil, due to the recession. The dust bowl of the 1930's helped touch off the great depression. What might happen if the billions of south and east Asia, spurred on by cheap coal based power, switch, as they seem to be, from a largely plant based to a largely meat based diet, consuming many times the amount of water and land per kg of food (e.g. 1 kg of beef takes about 15,000 L of water, 1 kg of wheat only 1,000 L). What might happen then if the strip southwest of a Himalayas and the river deltas of China; bread baskets of south and south east asia, were hit by major drought? Can you imagine the disruption? The wars, the anger, the refugees, the starvation, the global economic meltdown? How many more and how much worse droughts would you expect were the planet's temperature to increase by 2C? 4C? 6C? How many more floods would you expect to see? There must be a stopping point, yes?<p>[1] <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6380193/McFarthest-point-in-the-US-from-a-McDonalds.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6380...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.eoearth.org/article/Anthropogenic_biomes" rel="nofollow">http://www.eoearth.org/article/Anthropogenic_biomes</a>