"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."--Dickens.

This quote at the beginning of his Tale of Two Cities has a deeply ironic resonance for today's generations,

You are entirely right that our contemporary global population has enjoyed a level of general affluence, safety, technological innovations, entertainment and travel possibilities, and range of life options unimaginable to even our recent ancestors.

And yet all this idyllic life we lead has resulted in epidemic levels of alienation, despair, and anxiety, as we teeter on the verge of a global civilizational collapse that will quickly turn our heaven into hell, once the planet overheats enough to dry up and bake all our "amber waves of grain." Overshoot and collapse is a common syndrome among organisms who come to dominate and parasitize their ecosystems; we are no exception. I'm afraid.