The world today is confronting a global ecological crisis. The environment is under threat from pollution and the rampant exploitation of natural resources by human beings, who, driven by an anthropocentric worldview, consider themselves superior to nature. So-called "civilization" is not progressing but rather moving towards a self-inflicted doomsday. Humanity is committing ecocide, making the Earth increasingly uninhabitable for all forms of life. Though belatedly, activists around the world are beginning to express concern over this man-made environmental disaster. Critics have also joined the movement by introducing a new theoretical framework called ecocriticism which analytically explores the relationship between literature and the environment.