"The awareness that we are slowly growing into now is that the earthly wilderness that we are so complexly dependent upon is at our mercy. It has become , in a sense, our artifact because it can only survive by a human understanding and forbearance that we now must make."
Wendell Berry, Standing on Earth.

"Let us build cities that are not too big, but spacious, with traffic flowing freely through their leafy avenues, with children playing safely in their green and flowery parks, with people living happily in bright efficient houses. Let us balance agriculture and industry, town and country - let us do all these sensible and elementary things and then let us talk about culture."
Herbert Read.

One third of the world’s natural ecosystems - forests, freshwater and marine ecosystems - have disappeared between 1970 and 1995, because of human pressure. The evidence for massive loss of global biodiversity has been building up for years and - for just as long - been shelved while industrial activity proceeds apace. Meanwhile, Governments are capitulating to the biotech and chemically-intensive farming and food industries, and doing little to encourage a shift to sustainable organic agriculture and locally-based production and distribution of food.