It's a Jolly good World... warts and all!
Hey, the environment is under assault, profligate greed is running amuck, and ponds are drying up all over the world!  All is "amuck"... but good, clean mud is getting harder and harder to find.  Other than that, no complaints! Ha, ha-- he, he, he! We're Jolly Toads -- we figure we aren't going to make much of a difference by going on a hunger strike.  Who cares?!  And we thought about not bathing for six months -- but, hey, is that going to bother anyone else!  NOT!  Smelly toads don't make front page news (well, okay -- flat, dead, smelly toads in the middle of a highway may get some attention, but we're not going that far!) So, how do we help change the world for the better?  The path we're presently taking is not sustainable.  We're poisoning the life-support systems that all life on earth relies on.  We're stripping the world's resources -- the forests, the oceans, the soil -- faster than they can recover.  Primarily in a bid to make money.  In many cases this doesn't even mean creating tangible benefits -- it's all about accumulating digits in computers... with a huge long-term cost to the environment and society.
Hey, what's wrong with Unlimited Growth!!  Let the free market rule!  The invisible hand will look after all the discrepancies.  Those who have a good idea and the initiative will prosper.  The benefits of their wealth will trickle down to those at the bottom.  Let the strong survive and prosper!
And that's were it all breaks down. (That's Uncle Plunder by the way -- he only has one measure for success.  Money!)  But how can you measure clean fresh air, a beautiful sunset, cool oozy mud, friendship, love, the indescribable joy of holding a baby -- in terms of money.  You can't!  Yet these all contribute to our quality of life (especially mud!) -- and that's how we need to begin measuring success -- on a global scale.  Hey, even we're smart enough to figure out that much, and we're only Jolly Toads!  Not an economics degree to be had.  (Uncle Plunder has an MBA -- he's really smart.  But he's too dumb to realize that you can't have an economy without an ecology to base it on.  And the world's ecological base is being destroyed all too quickly.) Here's a quick story to put it into perspective (there's no mud... promise!): It's like we're living on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean.  Originally there were three coconut palms.  But... a minority of the inhabitants took the initiative to whack down two of the trees for firewood.  Even though the entire group relied on those trees.  That leaves all of the inhabitants with only one remaining coconut tree... for their sustenance, shade, and firewood.  And now the whackos want to cut down the last remaining tree!!  What would you do... allow them to go ahead?  No way!!  You'd do whatever you could to save the last coconut tree. So what about us? We're living on a small planet in the middle of a big universe.  We've already "chopped down most of our coconut trees."  If we continue to hack, pollute, bulldoze, burn and destroy our environment (and mudholes) we'll destroy the life support systems on earth.   There are those who don't believe this is happening... well, to be candid, they're not as bright as your average toad. Evolution is supposed to work the other way round.  People are supposed to be getting smarter than toads! Where's the proof?
For a more comprehensive consideration of sustainability and what a wisdom-based society might look like, read my article "The Great Unlearning"