Are We Committing Civilizational Suicide?

Are we committing civilizational suicide?  Yes, asserts Norman Wirzba in his article in the September 27, 2017 issue of Christian Century titled, "Waking up to the Anthropocene."  This article is not pleasant reading; here is how it begins:

"By century's end, Miami will have disappeared. . . . Along with tens of millions of people around the world, Miami's residents will have joined the ranks of climate refugees who have been either flooded or burned out of their homes. . . . If current trends continue, societies will face massive starvation, plagues and disease, perpetual war, and economic collapse."

The uncontrollable growth of cities is not sustainable.

"The phenomenon of today's mass urbanization is about much more than a change in location.  It is about a change in sensibility, and a shift in desires and expectations.  . . . The world and its many creatures have ceased to be a presence that compels recognition, respect, and responsibility.  Life is navigated through shopping rather than through the care of land, plants, and animals. . . .  To give just one barometer of how far we have come, my grandfather would have understood his life to be a failure if the animals he cared for and the land he cultivated were abused.  My generation, by contrast, depends on energy and agricultural systems that require the abuse of land, water, and resources."

We seem to be locked into a downward spiral directed and anointed by the America Trinity of individualism, materialism and ethnocentrism.  "Entire continents and races of people were brutalized to secure commodities and profits.  The project of modern progress, in other words, depended on terrorizing lands and peoples, extracting whatever wealth was available, and thereby keeping vast populations poor."

There is a better biblical way, asserts Wirzba, but few seem willing to change directions, not even most Christians.  We are deranged if we continue on with our "dream of a perpetual growth economy."