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Article: Climate change threatens democracy. (effects of climate changes on the world's political and economic conditions)
- Article from:
- Earth Island Journal
- Article date:
- June 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Earth Island Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Long before the systems of the planet buckle, democracy will disintegrate under the stress of ecological disasters and their social consequences. Two different men independently expressed this chilling insight to me -- William Ruckelshaus, the first head of the EPA and now CEO of Browning-Ferris Industries; and Henry Kendall of MIT, recipient of the 1990 Nobel Prize for physics.
When I first heard the remark, it seemed shocking -- yet somehow irrelevant -- to the climate crisis. Only after the thought had burrowed its way into my consciousness did the connection became apparent: If we alter the balance of natural relationships that support our lives, those ...