This book focuses on the ecological crisis and its psychological effects and causes. It describes the relationship which a group of children in Norway have developed with a small and local more-than-human place-as children instinctively will do given the opportunity.

This anthology illustrates the range and diversity of responses from the psychological world to the multiple ecological crises with which our society is faced. "Vital signs" are the basic physiological measures of functioning which health practitioners use to assess how ill a patient is. This book focuses not on our physical predicament, with so many of the earth's systems severely stressed and beginning to fail, but on our psychological predicament. As news of this very serious situation slowly penetrates our defences, we struggle as individuals and as a society to find an adequate response.