We now know that industrial capitalism has been practiced in a way that is shortsighted and unsustainable in environmental, human, and even economic term. Some of the current problems that our children will be dealing with are:

1Global Warming

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, after 20 years of study, has concluded that our reliance on fossil fuels has “unequivocally” caused global warming, with potentially devastating effects on ecosystems and human society. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at 387 parts per million. We need to cut it to 350 to avoid these effects. Recent research shows that warming is happening faster than predicted.

2Food

The industrialization of food has robbed it of nutrients and has sickened us with diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, among other maladies. It has also contributed to global warming. Even setting aside the health and environmental problems, it has failed the core test of industrialization: efficiency. It takes 10 calories of oil to produce one calorie of food energy; when the main energy input to grow food was sunlight, one calorie of solar energy yielded two calories of food energy.

3Housing

The United Nations Human Settlement Program (UN-Habitat) estimates that one billion people live in slums and that, at the current rate, this number will increase to 3 billion by 2050. Ten million people die annually in these densely populated urban areas from conditions produced by sub-standard housing.

At Green Leaf, we recognize that the current environmental situation requires more than just recycling bottles and converting to low-energy light bulbs.