At the dawn of a new millennium we are witnessing radical shifts in the social and environmental complexion of the planet. While wealthy nations and individuals herald the new global expansion of consumer culture, media technologies and accelerated transportation, countless millions of poor and disenfranchised people have seen their standards of living steadily erode.

The gap between rich and poor is rapidly increasing. According to the most recent UN Human Development report, more than 80 countries have per capita incomes lower than they were a decade ago, and global unemployment is now approaching one billion. Four hundred and forty-seven billionaires have wealth greater than the income of the poorest half of humanity. The net worth of the world's 200 richest people increased from $440 billion to more than $1 trillion in just the four years from 1994 to 1998. There seems to be no end in sight to the spread of this inequality.

The past half-century has also seen the steady degradation of our global environment. Greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global climate change, leading to expanding tropical disease vectors, extreme weather patterns, and the destabilization of sensitive ecosystems. Green space and wild-life are vanishing world-wide, as forests are indiscriminately clear-cut and urban spaces allowed to sprawl into valuable farmland and wildlife corridors.

The industrial countries of the earth produce mountains of non-degradable garbage each day, with the richest nations (Canada being the worst) producing the most per-capita. Most major cities in North America have reached a crisis in trash disposal, with landfills reaching capacity far sooner than our rate of waste requires. An equally destructive "answer" to this problem has been the reliance on incinerators. These facilities contribute immensely to the poor urban air quality that leads to tens of thousands of premature deaths nation-wide each year. Adding to the global crisis in air quality is a persistent reliance on fossil fuels to power vehicles and produce electricity. Everywhere one turns there is polluted water, polluted air, cities choked with automobiles and urban decay. We feel that it is well past time to say…

ENOUGH!

there is a better way...