Radical Alterations

From one of my favorite writers, Robert Macfarland:
"Green politics are sometimes described as unconcerned with 'real-world' problems of poverty and hunger: the lynx and the blue whale are loved over the starving child. The MEA report [Millennium Ecosystem Assessment] proves the nonsense of such a description. It shows the deep interconnection of environmental and human well-being. 'Any progress achieved in addressing the goals of poverty, hunger eradication, and improved health,' the report stated, in an admirably forthright conclusion, 'is unlikely to be sustained if most of the ecosystem services on which humanity relies continue to be degraded ... The pressures on ecosystems will increase ... unless human attitudes and actions change. Achieving this [change], however, will require radical alterations in the way nature is treated at every level of decision-making, and new ways of cooperation between government, business and civil society. The warning signs are there for all of us to see. The future lies in our hands.'" The Guardian, Saturday 30 July 2005