Goldwert Vol. 5

The Last Pollination

Put more formally, the current stage of history can be characterized by structural forces that systematically degrade and finally exceed the buffering capacity of nature with respect to human production, thereby setting into motion an unpredictable yet interacting and expanding set of ecosystemic breakdowns. The ecological crisis is what is meant by this phase. In it we observe the desynchronization of life cycles and the disjointing of species and individuals, resulting in the fragmentation of ecosystems human as well as nonhuman.

For humanity is not just the perpetrator of the crisis: it is its victim as well. And among the signs of our victimization is the incapacity to contend with the crisis, or even to become conscious of it. 

—Joel Kovel, The End of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?

The scenario of ecological collapse holds, in essence, that the cumulative effects of growth eventually overwhelm the integrity of ecosystems on a world scale, leading to a cascading series of shocks. Just how the blows will fall is impossible to tell with any precision, although a number of useful computer models have been assembled. In general terms, we would anticipate interacting calamities that invade and rupture the core material substrata of civilization - food, water, air, habitat, bodily health. Already each of these physical substrata is under stress, and the logic of the crisis dictates that these stresses will increase. 

—Joel Kovel, The End of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?