Bertram Schmidt

1 INTRODUCTION Since the start of industrialisation and with world populations increasing, the exploitation of our planet has reached unprecedented dimensions. The unsustainable use of resources and mismanaged disposal of the resulting production waste have led to our changing climate. With an imminent depletion of nonrenewable resources driving irreversible destruction of natural habitats, which reduces global biodiversity, we have arrived to a compounding crisis within our biosphere.