One Minute To Midnight Summary

Following the end of World War II, the United States and much of the developed world experienced rapid growth. This economic growth produced abundant goods and consumption rose to levels never experienced before. With new conveniences developing at a fast pace consumers gobbled up everything from energy to plastics, pesticides and food. During this time producers and consumers gave little thought to the environmental impact their new obsession with growth and consumption had. These impacts were easily ignored because they were not immediately seen. Coal burning, the automobile, acid rain, ozone depletion, water and nuclear pollution, all effects of economic growth, would alter the environment and it would be forever changed by the twentieth century.

During the century the world population increased to reach 6 billion, this escalating population, plus new technologies adapted partly to provide for them, put increasing pressure on limited resources such as cropland, food, water, forests, and energy sources. The new technologies used to provide for the growing population dumped large amounts of pollutants into these resources, further depleting them. In the video, “One Minute to Midnight,” Dr. David Suzuki claims that continued growth would be suicidal …show more content…
Success relied on a country's economic growth. This was the priority of the twentieth century with little to no regards to the environmental impact of this exponential growth. As Al Gore emphasized in his book, Earth in the Balance, “calculations often completely ignore the value of...fresh water, clean air, the beauty of the mountains, the rich diversity of life in the forest, just to name a few.” If the world is to continue on this course we will surely see the “fifty-ninth minute mark.” We must work together to reduce pollution and heal a wounded planet do that future generations can enjoy her