Human History and Energy Regimes: Empathy is the Key?

When you google "human history and energy regimes" you come up with a lot of posts about Jeremy Rifkin's new book The Empathic Civiilzation. http://empathiccivilization.com/about

Rifkin claims that "[n]othing could be more important at this juncture in our history as a species than to have a meaningful cultural debate about the role empathy has played in the development and conduct of human affairs. Our ever more complex energy-consuming global civilization is careening the human race to the very brink of extinction. We need now, more than ever, to retrace our steps, to understand how we got here, so that we can find a new, more secure footing that can free us from the entropic shackle and allow us to thrive while living more lightly on Earth and in harmony with our fellow creatures and the ecosystems that nurture life. Our scientists tell us that we have but a few years to find a new economic road map for civilization -one that takes us into a new energy regime that is more sustainable and able to break the fever that is heating up the biosphere.

To accomplish this undertaking requires that we know how human consciousness has developed over eons of history as we transitioned into a succession of ever more complex energy-consuming civilizations. By rediscovering our cognitive past, we find important clues to how we might redirect our conscious future. With our very survival at stake, we can no longer afford to remain unmindful about how empathic consciousness has evolved across history and at what expense to the Earth we inhabit."

Jeremy Rifkin:

According to his website promoting the book: http://empathiccivilization.com/author

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Rifkin

OR, "As head of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C., leftist political activist Jeremy Rifkin has organized demonstrations, formed coalitions, and initiated lawsuits in behalf of a number of causes, most recently against persons, groups, and institutions whose activities in biotechnology--especially genetic engineering--he sees as a potential threat to life." according to Biography Resource Center [Snell Library Databases page]: Biography from Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2010. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2010. http://0-galenet.galegroup.com.ilsprod.lib.neu.edu/servlet/BioRC Document Number: H1000082959