Chapter 12, The Inestimable Gift of a Future Summary and Analysis

Even though they want people to think in terms of what is good for the world, who is any one group to impose their wants on other cultures? Even though they will say that the environment is important, government does not acknowledge the significance of environmental problems. Man either has to take part in the restoration of the planet or vanish from it. The planet only has a certain amount of carrying capacity, which is the ability of the planet to support a certain amount of population and absorb waste. The earth's carrying capacity is still unknown. Optimists believe that everything will work out okay in the future.

Today's technology uses resources at a faster rate. Some hope that technology will find a way to eliminate the threat to...