Editor's note: Andrew Willner is a key environmental activist for the New York City region, with a long track record in conservation and political alliances. Baykeeper and the Waterkeeper Alliance are prestigious groups he has helped lead that have been templates for other regions' progress.

The too-successful human species catches up with nature-based realism upon questioning the side-effects of destructive technologies. We are not yet all on the same page, but human consciousness may turn on a dime, like global climate when it reaches a tipping point. The latter may have to happen to enable the former.

What a place, what a time: Berlin's transition from a hard winter to a welcome summer.  No time for springtime; we've all arrived at the global warming cook off. Who wants to contemplate such a thing? Yet, posing that question has a purpose here, to tell of progress on Culture Change's sail transport transition. The backdrop of Berlin is significant as a unique city of keen interest to those involved in social change and who are chafing in more stressful urban scenes.

Imagine boarding a flat-bottomed sailing barge for a 300-mile voyage from the shores of Lake Champlain to New York harbor. The hold is laden with twelve tons of locally produced wheat, flour, dry beans, maple syrup, apples, cabbages, and hard cider. This is not a historic re-enactment. This is the future!

At some point, many a discerning citizen comes to say "This nation is f---ed up!"  The danger of this mindset is that it shuts down further analysis and any constructive action.  But it also counts as as open-eyed, justified alarm.

The artificial environment hasn't yet been questioned by environmentalists. They accept it pretty much as is -- they and it are wedded to the notions of progress, science, and "Better living through chemistry" (Dupont's old slogan appropriated by acid-head hippies). When a grassroots wing of the environmental movement went after road building and pavement (tarmac) two decades ago, it was quite fringy for mainstream enviros. Then when we went after plastics a decade ago, this too was considered "out there," and kept low on the list of concerns for the average campaigner.

Mission and philosophy of Ice Defenders: "Anything goes in defense of Arctic ice"

The consensus on current information for understanding the Arctic's climate role, from top scientists speaking plainly: Arctic Methane: Why The Sea Ice Matters (video)

Consider this: each day the population of humans on the planet expands by more than 200,000. That is one good-sized city, complete with water, food, energy, transportation, communication and sanitation infrastructure. To feed that city may require, if storage and process losses are kept to a minimum, 1 million kilocalories every day - something like a 20-acre stockyard of cattle, a Tyson's poultry farm the size of a superdome, and a large fleet of Japanese fishing vessels seine-netting dolphins as they scour the dwindling ocean stores for tuna.

You are not alone in wondering when the obvious is going to be openly recognized:

When will the affordability of providing for basic human needs be widely compared with the towering waste of militarism and aggression, in the U.S. and beyond? When will caring for our planetary home, which only makes entire sense, be Job Number One? How many more Sandys and Fukishimas are necessary before the screaming global alarm is really heard?