With WK “Big Kenny” Alphin and Dr. Randy Wykoff, I am launching #Conversation2015, a look at the opportunities we have to make dramatic changes through compassion and caring. Read the introduction to the project here and the overview of environmental damage here. Then join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook: #Conversation2015

Whether we are talking about global warming, strip mining or natural habitat destruction, the tension between economic interests and environmental concerns are becoming more tangibly apparent. We can now see the destructive impact our predecessors have had on the planet. Given this trajectory we know an uninhabitable world will be our fate in only a few more generations.

We can argue about the details, but the facts cannot be ignored. For example, the world is losing forests at a rate of about 120 square miles per day and as many as 3 million people, mostly in poor and developing countries, die each year from outdoor air pollution related to exhaust and emissions. Almost half that many are dying from indoor air pollution.

So it is not a matter of when our environmental destruction will impact our health, it is a question of when will it be a non-compatible threat? When will we reach the tipping point, beyond which we may not be able to return?

I liken our behavior to the smoker who says he will quit next week. At some point that is also the week he is diagnosed with a fatal illness. We have to change our habits before the earth develops its cancer.