P94 Patterns

"The critical point is that the growing demand that early civilization created for both luxury and basic materials accelerated the volume and value of tribute, transport, and trade over longer and longer distances."
"Where and when a decision was made less and less coincided with where and when its environmental impact was felt.Decisional distance of this sort has the dimension of space, time, and social rank. Increasing it has progressively lessened the awareness of and sensitivity to the environmental effects of their policies among rulers and their advisers.  This still holds today."