All human activity, from the most basic (our individual metabolism), to the most industrialized (energy infrastructures), is embedded in the earth's environment and leads to some transaction with it. This relationship works in both directions. Human activity is bounded by environmental conditions while also influencing the environment, by preempting a part of it and by emitting waste residuals into it. Indeed, the history of human activity can be seen as a history of overcoming environmental limitations in the pursuit of personal, political, or social goals. Throughout this history one finds expressions of a fear that certain absolute limits would be reached in the ability of the earth's environment to absorb human influences, whether material or spiritual. These fears have to a large extent conditioned the environmental values of human cultures. Today we are better able than in any previous time in human history to investigate the validity of such fears.

It is commonly believed that mass consumption society and the industrial structure on which it rests are depleting and overwhelming the earth's resources. Current levels of resource use and intervention in natural systems are already producing serious environmental impacts, and with growing economies and populations these problems are unlikely to diminish. Although industrial and regulatory systems have already demonstrated an enormous capacity to learn and adapt to perceived environmental constraints, these adaptations have not radically altered the basic environmental problems faced by industrial societies. For instance, although a trend toward ‘dematerialization’—cars are smaller and lighter, computers are smaller, and the service sector of the economy is growing—has been noted by some authors (Larson et al., 1986), the amount of matter and energy processed by global industrial systems continues to increase.