Attitudes about World Problems My thinking about ecology and world problems has gone through several stages and is still changing. Sometimes my thinking returns to previous stages of thought and recognizing this is interesting. My feeling is that none of the stages are wrong. They are just abstract groupings that sometimes make thought easier. Here are the stages: 1. The world has major problems that are more serious than most people realize. This requires government action and awareness by the media. 2. The problem goes deeper than governments and gets into economic systems and other social structures. We need to fix corporations and other resource users. 3. The problem goes deeper than economics and involves culture. Basic beliefs about growth, development, population, religion, human rights, are driving our economic systems and government. We need to work at all levels. 4. Fixing culture is difficult, slow, and confusing. This is discouraging, there must be a better way. We can't even agree on what a fixed culture would look like. We can't agree that fixing culture is necessary, and all cultures resist change. 5. We are culture. We can change ourself and that is a beginning. We don't have to know all the answers, only which direction to grow. Nature will survive, and we can be content becoming part of the solution and forming a partnership with nature.
