The other way round: we are potent enough - given our science and technology, sheer numbers and ever rising usage of fossil fuels etc. etc - to do damage to the planet, including rising temperature, elimination of untold numbers of species, changing the natural balance adversely to the point of serious damage to Earth and ourselves, not to mention other species. Hence, we need to take responsibility for our own misdeeds - given our power to do damage....
So you blatantly choose to ignore any other facts that affect the planets temp like solar effects from our sun? It's only all these evil humans set out to destroy everything?
You misunderstand if things are not said the way you want it put together... Or if you want it put in your own words: so you blatantly choose to ignore everything Humans do regardless of just how much and how devastating it is...??? Who said one necessarily has to be evil to do wrong? You think that, for instance, Easter Islanders were necessarily evil? I don't. But they could have been.... shall we say short-sighted? Cut the branch on which they were sitting. Something akin to what we are still doing, especially given the capitalist context and our powerful science and technology... One more thing: anyone who wants absolutes from science is on the wrong footpath...
Science -IS- about absolutes. It's also about collecting data, and not allowing your own emotions to influence the outcome. That includes money agendas designed to fleece the populus with more taxes. @Joe C: You got it wrong. It's all about those evil Americans set out to destroy everything.
Yeah we contributed to this, that's for sure. But we also won't reverse it, because money>everything else, even human life, especially for the sociopaths in power. This is why I think our only hope is to continue developing technology as fast as we can, especially robots and AI, even though it's dangerous, so we can start terraforming, exploring and colonizing the near space. We were always explorers. We should try to avoid the scenario where we'll be stuck with VR headsets living in some dream 24/7 while everything in the RL collapses. So yeah, Terra, was nice meeting you, maybe you'll recover in a few millennia, but we need to get away and spread.
@toyo: I agree with you. It's a consequence of living a comfortable life. And plastics are required for biological purity, preventing our race from being wiped out because of some virus. We're close already. And nature is crafty. We have all to do just to keep a step ahead of her. She's already culling the herd with virii like Zyka and Dengue fever. I'm not sure that we can reverse it. People are so used to creature comforts that it's all but impossible to give them up. Have you ever smelled a person without deodorant? Or bad breath? Humans are in a perpetual state of decay. So they stink by their very nature. The bouquet of flowers that a bride carries is a mideval tradition designed to cover up the pelvic odor of the bride. (See: https://www.bustle.com/articles/170...adition-isnt-as-romantic-as-you-might-imagine) I'm sorry, but we're all sentimental fools to a certain extent. Wheras it's a nice sentiment, Humankind is not ready to travel to the stars. We'd have to build a multi-generational ship, because the time needed to get from one habitable world to another is greater than the lifespan of a few generations. Can you imagine wars on a starship like we have on earth?
WTH?!?!?!? ( ) OK< I'll bite: Americans are 5% of Earth's population but using at least 25% of energy and loadsa resources, true - without Americans on board there is no solution to common problems. You guys are way too comfy for anyone else's well-being, true. But the Q is "What must be done?" Are Americans interested in their comfort more than survival of this planet?!? Of course, one can not blame ONLY Americans, when EU and Japan, now India, China etc. are also galloping in the same direction. The solutions have to be comprehensive - we only have one world! But ALL parties will have to make amends - away from fossil fuel, towards recycling, products that are lasting, of best quality, i.e. a rational - not Capitalist, strictly for profit - relationship with Mother Nature! Deodorants? And that's your "argument" for "creature comforts" to continue regardless of our future generations? Jeeeezzzzzusssss! FYI, our skin bacteria which will break down those odours etc. can grow back. It will take a few days but it will be OK again - the natural balance, that is, which we disrupt with all manner of chemicals we use daily... Inform yourself before such silly conclusions... Honestly... Science is about absolutes? FFS! You should have studied things properly. OaO!
@gorski: My "argument" is that there are so many man-made items which require petrochemicals, that there's no realistic way to escape them without causing a pandemic. What would the world at large do without hand sanitizer? Rubber gloves? I can sit here and keep on naming the countless thousands of man-made items that require petrochemicals (i.e. oil) to manufacture. Relationship with mother nature?!? There is no relationship with mother nature. She is there for us to conquer. It's either us or nature. And if you require proof, just go into the forest and try to feed that cute lil' Grizzly bear. Or, go and swim with the Orca when they're feeding. I bet that humans taste just as good to them as baby seals do. Or better yet: Go to Africa or any one of countless tropical countries and get bitten by a mosquito carrying Dengue or Yellow Fever. The Puerto Ricans don't call Dengue "Break-Bone" fever for nothing. As far as my knowledge of science goes, Michio Kaku built one of these https://www.quora.com/How-did-Michi...ccelerator-in-his-garage-How-long-did-it-take I built this when I was 12, but our school was too poor to afford or procure a Mercury Diffusion pump. https://geoffcain.com/blog/science/diy-60s-fun-from-the-amateur-scientist/ Here's the entire plans. https://www.docdroid.net/4nxhiGD/19...amateur-scientist-a-homemade-atom-smasher.pdf Ahh memories...
It has to be done, and mistakes will be made, and we will learn in the process. Vikings, Magellan, Columbus also experienced crews mutinies and sailed blindly, basically to the end. Doesn't have to be the stars. Nearby planets, asteroids, mining resources, start with the little stuff. It simply has to be done or we get stuck here, which is the very worst option of them all. What matters is starting to do it even if it's hard, risky and costly, just like we went to the Moon. People need to remind themselves that the few decades we're here and our lives are not important at all. What matters is humanity as a whole, now that's a bit more relevant. As individuals we're expendable, always were. But humanity might just be the only intelligent life in the universe if we're unlucky, so it's worth fighting to expand and preserve it. If we wait to be "ready", we'll rot here on Earth, as there are always more important things to do with your money, like buying drugs, partying hard, accumulating lots of useless goods for the sake of it, and generally just stashing wealth just so you can feel good about being "successful", when you'll soon be irrelevant dust once again.
We might be unlucky if we do find intelligent life out there https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(film) Think of what happened to the natives on the American continent when it was discovered by western europeans
Yeah, right, petrochemicals... that is how we survived from the beginning... Sure, there is no relationship with mother nature, hence we decimate all the species of Earth... Nice attitude, this conquering aggression, which will eventually make us eat each other, since money and power alone count for nothing... It got us into countless wars but given our science today - who wants this attitude to prevail?!? Hands up who wants another WW!!!
well; lets face it, we are a couple of billion eggs in just one basket; on a sinking ship it is a dreadfull thought to me that it is being preached as du bist nichts, dein volk ist alles` reminds me of a black page in our history..
It's just extremely hard to ignore how fragile and irrelevant we are, that's all. Do agree that meeting other intelligent species could be catastrophic; I just happen to hold some sort of (probably unfounded) belief that we would manage to adapt and survive, we always did. Even as peoples like the Incas were basically exterminated, humanity evolved and survived and the Incas adapted as well, not as the Inca empire, of course, but does it really matter on the grand scale. Still think we really need to escape Earth; should be where most of the R&D goes towards, AI, robotics, space travel etc. We won't survive here. Isolation is never good. Neither is consuming most resources and fighting over the leftovers. Would be truly a shame if this species ends up stranded here instead of slowly colonizing the space around the planet and seeking more resources.
I have seen the future, you all die murdered by a rock. Beautiful red and orange hues as it burns when entering the atmosphere. Then the flash. All the anthropocentric nonsense gone. Then the planet is at peace. The universe will go on minus the stupid humans!