There are problems for the environment. We might argue about how many and how serious they are, but global warming, damage to the ozone layer, destruction of the rainforest, mass extinctions and running down of fish stocks in many of the world's seas are incontrovertibly cause for concern. So, too, are a range of more local problems: tankers run aground; dangerous chemicals leach into the water supply; the countryside continues to fall to the bulldozer, giving way to yet more shops, houses, roads and storage depots; and sparrows, thrushes and skylarks disappear. There are vastly fewer butterflies. Almost no one is complacent about all this.

We can ask about causes. Particular situations are brought about in particular ways. And although in some cases at least an important part of the cause is evident – ships sink because someone was asleep, and cutting down rainforests is at least in part caused by short-term agricultural demand – in others, as with the disappearance of sparrows, technical and scientific work needs to be done. Suppose, as many believe, that these and other problems coalesce into something like an environmental crisis. This may not be quite the right word, but it ought not to be denied that there are a number of seemingly serious and often interconnected problems facing the world today. We can ask a further question about causes. Is there any underlying explanation for this present wide-scale predicament?