Dangerously Addictive: Why We Are Biologically Ill-Suited to the Riches of Modern America

Peter Whybrow

September 22, 2011

But living now in relative abundance, when the whole world is a shopping mall and our appetites are no longer constrained by limited resources, our craving for reward–be that for money, the fat and sugar of fast food, or for the novel gadgetry of modern technology–has become a liability and a hunger that has no bounds.  Our nature has no built-in braking system.  More is never enough.

This is a chapter from The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises (2010).