Threats to the Biosphere: Eight Interactive Global Crises

Eight global crises- human economy, climate change, exponential human population growth, ecological overshoot, biotic impovershment and the reduction of biodiversity, renewable resource depletion, energy allocation, and environmental refugees- affect each other and affect and are affected by the biosphere. Some, perhaps all, are close to tipping points that, if tipped, will result in irreversible change. And yet, no sense of urgency is apparent. If any one of the eight interactive crises passed a tipping point, it will probably act as a threat multiplier for the remaining crises. Both politicians and the average citzen believe that priorities can be established for these interactive crises, but such an option is not viable for a highly interactive system. Polls indicate that most people place economic growth as the higest priority for human society, even through the highest status should be given to the master biospheric life suppot systme to which all other systems are subordinate.