Today, more than ever, we need political leaders who can see the big picture, who understand the relationship between the economy and its environmental support systems.

We can build an economy that does not destroy its natural support systems, a global community where the basic needs of all the Earth's people are satisfied, and a world that will allow us to think of ourselves as civilized. This is entirely doable.

The throwaway economy that has been evolving over the last half-century is an aberration, now itself headed for the junk heap of history.

The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse.

Nations are in effect ceding portions of their sovereignty to the international community and beginning to create a new system of international environmental governance.

We are witnessing the beginning of one of the great tragedies of history. The United States, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before.

Yet, most of the readily accessible reserves of oil formed over hundreds of millions of years will be consumed within a single generation, spanning the years from 1960 to 1995.