Quote: (09-17-2013 05:55 AM)MaleDefined Wrote:
Fact: the actions of humans are damaging to Earth.
See, still not accurate, at least from a scientific perspective.
When you say Earth, you're talking about a planet with many complex systems, from volcanic activity, plate tectonics, to geological development, atmosphere composition, ocean currents, etc etc etc. These systems have been in place for BILLIONS of years. The human mind can't even fathom how long that is.
Just to put things in perspective:
Written human history goes back about 6,000 years, give or take. Everything that has ever been recorded, our entire history. Every empire, every age, every text and script. 6,000 years.
Our species has been around 60,000 years. Even this is nearly impossible to fathom. The incredible speed at which we've progressed over the last several hundred years give us a skewed perspective as to how time on earth progresses.
250 million years ago, there was an extinction event that killed 96% of all life on the planet. The 4% that survived evolved into every species that exists today. 250 MILLION years. Not thousands, not tens or hundreds of thousands, not even millions, but hundreds of millions of years. Our minds cannot comprehend just how long this is.
The earth is about 4-5 BILLION years old. Starting to sink in?
We could dump billions of gallons of oil into the ocean, we could set off every nuclear warhead on earth, we could ignite every last gram of explosive and combustible gas, powder, liquid on earth. It wouldn't make a difference. The Earth would keep doing what it's been doing for a very, very long time.
The statements: "We are hurting the environment" and "We are hurting the Earth" are a very ego and human-centric perspective. We might ALTER certain cycles that exist in nature. We might AFFECT biodiversity and carbon cycles (albeit rather insignificantly). But there is no such thing as "Hurting the Earth".
When predators out in nature overpopulate beyond their food supply, they starve to death. When herbivores overpopulate with a lack of natural predators, they develop diseases and die off. Nature always equalizes, and not all of our technology or intelligence can do a goddamn thing about it if it's our time to go.
All of our concern for environmental protection should be towards humans. It is for OUR survival that we develop sustainable food supplies. We should be concerned with OUR environment for OUR survival. Blanket statements like "THE environment" make no sense. Which environment? There are many. The HUMAN environment is what should concern us most; imagine that it's our bubble that keeps us warm, safe, and well-fed. How can we maintain that bubble and make it as efficient as possible so we can remain a dominant species, THAT should be our concern.