Full Description
GAIA shares the destiny of a living—and now suffering—Earth.
ANIMA mundi, her myth embodies; it is the self-regulating and self-organizing flow of energy between the Sun and Moon and Earth's elemental surface and subterrain, oceans and atmosphere, together supporting the planet's species.
ENERGY, the vibrant energy that surges through her biosphere is being blocked, though, coming under attack from our species' greed-driven promotion and acceptance of technology that unrelentingly destroys the conditions supporting and sustaining life.
WEALTH accumulation in the name of progress is as if the legendary touch of Midas today transforms Earth's creations into lifeless forms, accelerating entropy and the global approach to disclimax.
EXISTENCE itself is being pushed by our species towards the vanishing point. War over resources—food, oil, water, land—and fouling of the environment, pandemics, and technological nostrums hasten the day.
FAILSAFE points have been passed: this study offers a broad, new look at the possibility that our planet has reached the final moment of no return.
Contents
Part 1 Foreward; Acknowledgments; Introduction
Part 2 Part I: Wrenching Planet Earth: On to the Anthrocene
Part 3 Part II: Empires Past; Issues Present
Part 4 Chapter 1: Greek Tragedy: Sacrificing Nature
Part 5 Chapter 2: Rome's Legions of Exploitation
Part 6 Chapter 3: Roman Rule, Islamic Embryo
Part 7 Chapter 4: The Seas of Galilee
Part 8 Chapter 5: Heat Scours the Fertile Crescent and the Rice Bowl East
Part 9 Part III: European Stepping Stones
Part 10 Chapter 6: This Spectred Isle: A Dicken's Story
Part 11 Chapter 7: Plowing with Swords: Crusaders Sow Hate, Reap Defeat, Waste Land
Part 12 Chapter 8: Markets, Money, and Mysteries Haunt Crusaders
Part 13 Chapter 9: Rural Angst, Urban Bulge
Part 14 Chapter 10: Black Rats, Black Death, and the Siege of Black Soil
Part 15 Part IV: Bible, Bullion, and Biogenesis
Part 16 Chapter 11: Before and After Cross and Crown
Part 17 Chapter 12: Alien Transgressions
Part 18 Chapter 13: A Roomful of Gold; the Ransom of Death
Part 19 Part V: British Raj Rising
Part 20 Chapter 14: Crises and the Quest for Empire
Part 21 Chapter 15: The Grim Face of Eden
Part 22 Chapter 16: Potato Rot; Irish Exodus
Part 23 Chapter 17: Waves to Pacific Mandalay
Part 24 Chapter 18: Tale of the Sandwich Islands
Part 25 Chapter 19: Searing Australia's Atmosphere
Part 26 Chapter 20: Maori and a Dance Macabre
Part 27 Chapter 21: Into the Heart of Imperial Darkness
Part 28 Chapter 22: Corvée on the Niles
Part 29 Part VI: The East is Bled
Part 30 Chapter 23: Xanadu and Fertile Crescent Rédux
Part 31 Chapter 24: White Man's Burden; Captives Clothed in Chains
Part 32 Chapter 25: India's Sub(jugated) Continent
Part 33 Chapter 26: Eco-Avalanches on the Roof of the World
Part 34 Part VII: The Veil is Rent
Part 35 Chapter 27: Workshops, Sweatshops Go Global, Heating Planet Earth
Part 36 Chapter 28: Empire, Hubris, and Ecocide
Part 37 Chapter 29: Earth's Fatal Eclipse
Part 38 Chapter 30: Gaia, We Never Knew You
Part 39 Chapter 31: Thermal End Game
Part 40 Bibliography; Index; About Gaia and the Fate of Midas; About the Author
