Obviously, the causes of these innumerable problems are extremely complex; there are countless books and reports about each one of them which will provide such detail. But, as we have seen, the problems that we face are so interrelated that it is actually possible to treat it as one huge crisis rather than lots of big ones, and so we can be justified in trying to find some deep, fundamental issues that cause this crisis. There is a variety of possibilities:

  • Capitalism. The modern capitalist economy is dependent upon endless economic growth to function and this necessarily puts stresses on the planet's finite resources, facilitating both the resource and ecological crises. Capitalism also exacerbates the gap between rich and poor and inevitably gives rise to periodic recessions.

  • Rejection of nature. This is the idea that the suffering in the world arises from a systematic urge to be free of the rules and limitations of the natural world and an ideology that puts humans above and apart from nature and in which we can use technology to overcome all natural restraints - including the finiteness of the planet's resources. But this separation from nature denies the fact that we are still supported by it, and therefore treats the thing that sustains us in a violent and destructive manner. By cutting ourselves off from that which is in reality our true 'nature' we also feel an emotional void, in which our lives seem ever more 'artificial'.

  • Individualism. This view has it that it is our separation from each other that has caused the world's problems. Communities have degraded and people have increasingly come to the idea of being separate, autonomous individuals that are only influenced by the environment rather than determined by it - individuals imposing themselves on the world, rather than arising from it. But the reality is that natural systems are interdependent, and to deny this is to become an unhealthy system. The view of the separate ego encourages a division of the world into 'good', 'bad' and 'neutral', which promotes selfish, behaviouristic responses of greed for the 'good', hatred towards the 'bad' and ignorance towards the 'neutral'. While the world is destroyed through greed and hatred, the absence of community from our lives makes us fundamentally lonely, often fearful, and miserable. This view contains the essence of B.F. Skinner's psychology and is generally similar to Buddhist philosophy.

  • Bigness. The modern world operates on a globalised scale. Our food, clothes and household goods are made by strangers abroad. The processes of their production and transportation are invisible to us. Working for chain stores or multinationals, our work is directed and determined by anonymous 'authorities' from far away. With political and economic integration, we are affected by decisions made by people we don't know on national, regional and international scales - and if we have even had the opportunity to elect them at all, it is only every four or five years and from a very narrow choice of alternatives none of whom care about us personally. Generally, we operate in a world run by distant strangers; as individuals we feel powerless. At the same time, the structural problems of the world result from its unprecedented 'bigness', hence when there is an ecological crisis like climate change or an economic crisis, it invariably affects the whole world. The swelling of cities also creates the very visible 'problems of bigness' associated with urban areas, from slums to congestion to crime. The works of E.F. Schumacher epitomise this view.

  • Growth. All natural systems are born, grow, stabilise, deteriorate and then die. Human society has been going through a growth phase and is close to the point at which it simply must stabilise. To the extent that it does not realise the destructiveness of its growth phase and the need to stabilise, society behaves like a cancer, and thus causes suffering. This natural cyclical process could be seen as scientifically as this, or it could be seen in a religious or quasi-religious context, such as the cycles of the cosmos in Hinduism.

If we think about these different perspectives we find that they are fundamentally quite compatible. If we accept that it is natural to stabilise and die, cancerous growth must be a rejection of nature; and capitalism operates on growth, individualism and bigness.