To support our value system, born in ignorance, we in North America continue to degrade energy as if there were no tomorrow. And there may not be many more tomorrows, at least for Homo sapiens. The fat man gluts himself, depending on miracle diet drugs untested for side effects, to burn off his fat cells so he may continue to glut. The band plays on. The topsoil erodes.
Nuclear wastes build up.
Species disappear by the hundreds. The landfills fill. The lofty mahoganies of the Amazon Basin, accessible thanks to a new superhighway, topple beneath a tropospheric pall of smoke. Bevis and Butthead stab each other with pencils and burn the couch. The buildup of the military machine escalates with no enemy in evidence except our own inefficiency.