Man Vs. Nature; And, Why We Are Destroying The Planet

We do not have the capacity to destroy the planet and your giving humans far more credit than they deserve. The planet has gone through destruction that humans cannot even imagine so it will be just fine. We may destroy our ability to live here effectively but the earth works on the scale of millions of years.

Humans cannot do anything to hurt the earth in the long term...only ourselves.

reply to post by kro32


far more credit? In some ways, it's the exact opposite kro32.

In some ways I am giving them very little credit.

It took 4.5 billion years of evolution to form man on Earth. Yet, we can take ourselves out in a few millenia. (Maybe less, since any significant scientific progress has happened in the last 100 years. If you can call the progress "significant".)

Who exactly is getting credit here? and, for what??

Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
You make a good point, but the distinction I made earlier is that we aren't destroying or even hurting the planet, we are destroying OUR environment, not THE environment, and that is the distinction. One good volcanic eruption spews more CO2 and methane into the atmosphere than all cars ever made combined, and yet the Earth recovers from it just fine.

"we are destroying OUR environment, not THE environment, and that is the distinction"

I don't follow that. THE environement on Earth is OUR environment. What else do we have?

We've survived several volcanic eruptions, but as modern science will tell you, we are capable of taking most of our species out all by ourselves.

If you don't believe sceince, ask the DOD. We can transform the surface of this planet into something unrecognizable with the press of a button.

And, the human species won't be the only missing after that event.

How's that for egotistical ;-)

Originally posted by EthanT

Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
It is arrogant to think that man is capable of destroying the planet. Nothing we do harms this planet, only OUR environment. The Earth cleanses it self and renews itself over time.

Are we not part of the planet? By destroying ourselves, are we not destroying another part of the planet?

I agree that the Earth might just purify itself of humans if we get too out of harmony, and a planet will still be here.

But, the point of my post was to recognize that we ARE the result of the evolution of the planet, and therefore we are a part of the whole.

I think we are a good thing on this planet (or at least have the potential to be) ... if we destroy ourselves, we destroy something good of the planet.

edit on 10-6-2011 by EthanT because: (no reason given)

Whether we are part of the planet, a byproduct of it or a result of intelligent design has yet to be revealed!
Whether we can live in harmony with this world has also not been revealed. Though I do believe that unless we
decide to live harmoniously with our environment, we will destroy ourselves as well as other life forms that may or may not be more native then ourselves! I believe we are here for a reason and i'm sure that it's not to become fat, lazy and selfish! Yet this is the road we have been traveling on for some time now! A road about to come to an end, possibly as soon as the end of this year! Whether this end is a tragic one may be for each of us to choose! Even for those so nieve as to continue on this path pretending everything is just fine! Will we choose wisely or continue to pretend that we are as untouchable as the stars in the sky, biding our time until the fools card is turned? I for one would rather spend one day giving back to the earth then to live a lifetime of mundane
extravagance pretending to be deserving of my excesses! I pray we can change before it's too late to try!