To reform the world, we must first reform ourselves.

"Never before have our emerging environmental crises been laid out so clearly before us. Rather than shouting from the fringes, respected economists, scientists, and politicians are sounding the warnings in high-profile journals and the halls of government - warnings that our oceans are dying, that the ice shelves are melting, and that we are setting ourselves up for the most massive and devastating market failure humanity has ever seen.

"So we recycle. We vote greener. We buy sleek new hybrid cars and fill our houses with energy efficient light bulbs. And we put our money and faith in the brave and ingenious technologies that will rescue us from the whirlwind.

"But it won't be enough.

"Because this is not, fundamentally a technological problem. Nor is it, fundamentally, a political problem. This is a problem of appetites, and of narcissism, and of self deceit. The planet is breaking, and it is breaking under the weight of our hunger for more.

"To reform the world, we must first reform ourselves."

Tom Green, Ecological Economist