Here is Stigweard's Theory of Where it All Went Wrong.

The Industrial Revolution. Prior to the industrial revoution most economies in the world were either agricultural or in some cases still hunter-gatherer. The introduction of industry, migration of people robbed of their land (by The Enclosure Acts in England for example) to cities has meant the destruction of our eons-old rural woay of life.

Since then, driven by the greed of the few, we have been sold an ideal that does not exist in reality - the capitalist utopia where money from the elite flows down to the lowest levels of society and poverty, crime and war are elimiated. In the process, we have become so attached to this inefficient, resource-consuming way of life even now, when we stand on the brink of the global warming catastrophe, human beings are incapable as a race from willfully pulling back and saying - hey we've got it wrong!

Anyway, my point is this: when we stood at the fork in the road, we took the road signposted 'Industrialisation' rather than 'Agriculture', and it was a mistake (except perhaps for iPods), as we went from sustainable to unsustainable and our children are now about to start paying the price.

That's it.