Ecological deterioration is more like alcohol or other drug addiction than war: it creeps up on us daily so that we become used to it rather than announcing destruction in the glaring headline it deserves -- "War Declared on Planet." Like addiction, ecological deterioration is insidious. We become used to the smell of automobile exhaust fumes and open landfills, inured to the sight of dead rabbits and possums by the roadside, habituated to tall trees being felled to make room for more office buildings, accustomed to children playing on city sidewalks devoid of grass and trees. We become so used to diminishment, so used to environmental decay, that many even deny that it is occurring.

-Sallie McFague