Arnold Toynbee excerpt

In "Menschheit und Mutter Erde", the author, Arnold Toynbee, describes his point of view concerning man's relationship and interaction with the earth's biosphere and also gives an insight on a future development of both. Tonybee begins with a clear definition of the term biosphere. The biosphere is defined as being the layer of the earth's crust, water and air, which surrounds our planet. After this definition, he points out that our biosphere is very small …

…is like an amphibian, he belongs to two different worlds, the biosphere as well as the spiritual world, and he strives for a distinct goal in each of the two worlds, but can never reach both of them; he has to choose. But unfortunately, man mostly chooses the material path, the one that promises wealth and success. Toynbee here concludes that man can obviously not escape his own Nemesis unless he changes his attitude fundamentally.