“Yet what is inescapably different about today is that never in the history of human life have so many people been so threatened by the changes our planet is undergoing; never have some of the planetary changes we are witnessing occurred so quickly, with so little time for adaptation; and never before has one species (us) been identified as the primary cause of such rapid, large-scale changes. It is this recognition of our vulnerability and our culpability, along with the fear that things are on the verge of getting much, much worse and there is little we can do about it, that lies behind the despair so prevalent in this age. We increasingly observe the temptation to such despair among scientists, environmentalists, those who work for development and aid agencies, and even portions of the general public. In our own work and ministry—and, indeed, as we did research for the science portions of this book—we have occasionally wrestled with such despair ourselves.”