Of the many reflections about the collapse of the neoliberal system, three stand out clearly. The first is that systemic corrections and regulations are not enough to save the sinking Titanic. A different route is needed to avoid colliding with the iceberg: namely, production that is ruled not only by profit, or unlimited and marginalizing consumption. Second, there must be no illusion that a sudden rupture would transport us to a better world, because this would surely result in the total collapse of the system of coexistence, with countless victims, and no guarantee that a new and better order would emerge from the ruins. Third, sustainability is crucial to any attempted solution. This means that the development necessary for the maintenance of human life and preservation of the vitality of the Earth cannot follow the lines of growth that currently prevail (See Dilma Rouseff's, CAP: CommonAgriculturalPolicy.) They are too predatory of the natural capital and short on solidarity for present and future generations. We must find the delicate equilibrium between the capacity of the Earth, with her different eco-systems, to tolerate and regenerate, and the development which is proposed to be necessary to ensure both good lives for humans, and the continuity of the present planetary project, an equilibrium that would represent a new and irreversible phase of history.

This requires accepting a strategy of transiting from the present paradigm, which does not guarantee a sustainable future, towards a new one, developed through intercultural cooperation, one that, in order to maintain life on Earth, would involve a new adjustment between the economy and ecology.

Where do I see the greatest bottleneck? In the ecological question. It is barely mentioned in passing in the political agendas that seek to solve the crisis. In the gathering of the G-20 in London on April 2nd, the topic did not enter into the formulation of the mechanisms to solve the systemic chaos. It is not only about global warming, the gravest of them all, but also about the thawing of the ice-caps, the acidity of the oceans, the growing desertification, the deforestation of large tropical zones and the appearance of shanty-towns, due to savage urbanization and structural unemployment. And even more: data have been released showing the general non-sustainability of the Earth herself, where human consumption has surpassed by 30% her capacity for recuperation.

A devastated natural world and social fabric shredded worldwide by hunger and exclusion negate the conditions required to create a new cycle of capitalism.  All indications are that the limits of the Earth are the final limits of this system that has prevailed for several centuries.

The shortest path to failure of any initiative seeking to overcome the systemic crisis is the failure to consider the ecologic factor. It is not an «externality» that can be tolerated because it is inevitable. Either we put it at the center of any possible solution or we must accept the eventual demise of the human species. The ecological bomb is more dangerous than all the lethal bombs already built and stored.

We must be collectively humble this time and listen to what nature herself, crying out loud, is asking of us: to renounce the aggression that the present model of production and consumption imply. We are neither gods nor the owners of the Earth, but her creatures and her tenants. Rose Marie Muraro beautifully ends her book, WantingtobeGod, Why?, soon to be published by EditorialVozes: «Whenwehaveceasedtobegodswecanbefullyhuman;westilldonotknowwhat thatis, but we have always intuited it.»

- Leonardo Boff, Theologian, Earthcharter Commission

Translation from the Spanish by contacto@servicioskoinonia.org, Refugio del Rio Grande, Texas