| Early societies were not much more than extended | | | | recognise now. This was a period of learning, |
| families but sometime after man had settled down to | | | | investigation into the physical world and advance in the |
| become farmers rather than hunter gatherers, | | | | arts that remains unparalleled in human history to date. |
| something happened and from society sprung | | | | It was shortly followed by the Industrial Revolution and |
| civilisation. | | | | the ascendance of the city-powered European |
| The first civilisations appeared around 5,500 years ago, | | | | civilisation, an ascendance that continued until its |
| around 90,000 years after modern humans are | | | | transmutation into the global, interdependent, |
| believed to walked out of Africa to begin the | | | | city-powered civilisation that we live in. |
| colonisation of the world. Focused on the basins of | | | | Great civilisations have come and gone but none has |
| major rivers, civilisations (by which we mean societies | | | | had the reach and power of the one in which we now |
| with writing) comprising of cities, large public buildings | | | | live. When, exactly, global civilisation arose is debatable. |
| and a recognisable political apparatus of state | | | | Some historians place it at the end of the 19th century, |
| appeared more or less simultaneously in Eurasia (the | | | | other the start of the 20th: what is undeniable though is |
| Tigris/Euphrates rivers), Africa (the Nile), China (Yellow | | | | that in the past 60 years it has flourished. Built on |
| River) and India (Indus). | | | | knowledge, trade and communication, the world has |
| To supply the cities, local production needed to be | | | | seen more change in those 60 years than, probably, |
| organised and trade emerged between the great | | | | the last 6,000. But there is one piece of knowledge |
| centres. From these cities, empires began and by 100 | | | | embedded in it that is beginning to bite: the foundations |
| AD there was a chain of empires stretching from | | | | are unstable. |
| Rome via Parthia (modern day Iran) to the Kushan | | | | The rules of accounting for the commerce on which |
| Empire (modern day Afghanistan and north India) to | | | | global civilisation is based upon owe their origins to 15th |
| China, forming a continuous belt of civilisations that | | | | century Italy where double-entry boo-keeping was |
| reached from the Atlantic to the Pacific. These areas | | | | invented. Just like the introduction of the number zero, |
| provided not only a zone for the development of trade | | | | the introduction of this system changed the way |
| but also for the transfer of ideas, technologies and | | | | people were able to think, particularly about business. It |
| institutions, especially religions. They were, in many | | | | is a system that is based on the concept of balance |
| ways, enormously developed and much of the thinking | | | | and even today, if you want to know the health of an |
| that still impacts upon us today, like the thinking of the | | | | enterprise, it is the balance sheet that you turn to. But |
| Greek philosophers or the basis of religion. | | | | there is one glaring omission to the system that that |
| Much of the early history of the world concerns the | | | | puts this civilisation under a greater threat than any |
| struggles of these civilisations to repel nomadic | | | | other since history began. A threat greater than that of |
| 'barbarians', a struggle they eventually lost around the | | | | marauding nomads and land-greedy neighbours, a |
| fifth century. The "barbarians" essentially still lived a | | | | threat that is contained within the foundations |
| "hunter gatherer" style of life with moveable tented | | | | themselves: the assumption that the use of the Earth's |
| encampments. They were not under any form of | | | | resources and services carries no economic cost. |
| central control but were capable of forming strong | | | | The idea that the Earth is man's to use as he pleases |
| alliances with others who shared their lifestyle and | | | | is an old one and occurs in the book of Genesis. 15th |
| were accomplished, well-armed warriors. The period | | | | century accountants certainly would not have had any |
| between the fall of the 'classical' civilisations and the | | | | interest in disputing the idea. But, over the years, |
| rise of the kind of society we live in today is generally | | | | science has mostly replaced religion as the driver of |
| referred to as the 'Dark Ages', a period in which | | | | progress. And, when it comes to looking at the |
| interaction between Europe and Asia, and even within | | | | impact of our economic activity, the science is deeply |
| the continents themselves, became much less | | | | worrying: |
| frequent. Although the advances of the classical | | | | - Carbon pollution from the belief that fossil fuels are |
| civilisation weren't lost completely, life was very | | | | the "cheapest" way to generate energy, |
| different. | | | | - loss of biodiversity from the idea that a forest is |
| Europe stagnated in the centuries following the fall of | | | | more valuable cut down for its lumber or burnt to clear |
| the Roman Empire but great civilisations rose in other | | | | land for crops, |
| parts of the world. Islam was truly dynamic at this time, | | | | - acidification of the oceans that threatens to eradicate |
| while the Maya, Inca and Aztec in the Americas and | | | | one of the great building blocks of the food chain itself. |
| Srivijaya in South East Asia were all vibrant. Europe | | | | The failure to put a cost on the Earth's resources and |
| was not entirely cut off from these civilisations and | | | | services has led us to developing an economy where |
| there was once piece of knowledge transferred from | | | | everyday people in everyday jobs are destroying the |
| the Hindu culture that revolutionised the world; their | | | | future. What's worse, they are assured that it is |
| numbering system. It was the Crusaders that brought | | | | "rational" behaviour as that is the "cheapest" way to |
| back the Hindu numbering system and it contained a | | | | do things. It is time for a fundamental re-think. We need |
| concept that had hitherto being missing; the number | | | | to correct that original error and develop an economy |
| zero. That such a change should cause a revolution is | | | | where we are rewarded for nourishing natural |
| a tribute to the way that knowledge once gained | | | | systems, not destroying them: a system that sees |
| cannot be removed. The enormous impact that | | | | mineral resources themselves as something to be |
| knowledge has on the way we think about things | | | | borrowed and reused as "food" for not just one |
| today makes it virtually impossible for us to imagine | | | | process but a whole host of them; a system that |
| how thought was before it. The development in | | | | encourages us to live with the planet, not on it. |
| mathematics and accounting that were made following | | | | If there is a single solution to climate change and an |
| the introduction of the number zero made possible the | | | | opportunity to preserve global civilisation, this is it. |
| European Renaissance that formed the world we | | | | |