It doesn't take another study—such as the recent government report that the ozone is thinning more rapidly than was estimated —to point to the urgency of environmental issues. Natural scientists differ on the interpretation of such data, but there's one point on which nearly all agree: Something more than science alone, even new and developing technologies, is needed to solve mankind's environmental challenges.
More and more, attention is focusing on moral factors underlying environmental issues—whether it's the debate over drinking on the job in connection with the Valdez oil spill or the causes of warfare behind the blackened skies of Kuwait. It's evident that something in addition to more efficient internal combustion engines and stricter antipollution laws will be required—however right and useful such developments are. There's increasing consensus that nothing less than a fundamental moral reorientation at the grass-roots level will be required.
Environmental conferences explore such questions as: How does our view of ourselves and others affect the environment? What are the moral and spiritual dimensions of environmental problems—and solutions? There's a growing willingness to talk, not just about symptoms—depletion of the rain forests, polluted air and water, overuse of nonrenewable resources—but of the self-interest, despair, enmity, traditionalism, and waste underlying the symptoms. It's no longer considered "theoretical" to speak of moral and spiritual issues as they relate to environmental issues.
