Introduction xiv

     In the larger oikos of environmentalism, such events are paralleled by the loss of a species, or an infestation by another, by floods and droughts, by lakes turned into cesspits by raw sewage, by air turned foul by industrial smokestacks, by groundwater contaminated by toxic chemicals, by the death of industries and the loss of jobs, by famine and plague and even war.
     If nothing is going wrong, we are not very likely to realize there is something we should be paying attention to. And this too has its parallel in the larger world. Indeed, the history of environmentalism is, in part, a history of people carrying on with business as usual until something goes obviously awry. Then, if they can agree on the nature of the problem(Did the floor cave in because the joists were rotten or because there were too many people at the party?), they may learn something about how to prevent recurrences.