Evidence is mounting that humans are having a profound effect on the health of our planet. A World Wildlife Fund report points out that the world's population - particularly in the industrialized West - is using more resources than our planet can sustain -- 1 ½ times more. And it's getting worse; consumption has doubled in the last 40 years leading to declining animal populations around the globe and a 60% decline in the tropics. As WWF’s director, Jim Leape points out, “This is like spending the savings: we're spending the natural capital we have on this planet. That's an economic crisis in the making." And global climate change - a result of our overconsumption of fossil fuels - also appears to be turning the world’s fertile crescent into a barren desert. In Syria, four years of drought in the region have decimated ancient irrigation systems, dried up water resources, and rendered farmlands dead. As the late George Carlin once noted, our problem isn't so much that we'll kill the earth - it's been here six billion years and will do just fine without us - but that we're changing the planet to the point where it will kill us. Time to wake up.