As a species we are a pitlies, merciless, relentless machine. We poison the sea. We poison the land. We poison ourselves. We are geo-engineering our planet to a point way beyond our environmental tolerances.
Because we need our phones. We need our cars. We need population to grow because otherwise nobody's making money, and we need arable land to feed that population.
We will burn.
You will all burn with us.
I sit here, listening to a bulldozer demolishing woodland just outside the perimeter of our land in order to turn it into bare earth. Not to plant. Not to use. Just to clear, because that’s tidier, and there are wild animals in the forest.
Such is man. Our road will wash away this winter because of what they’re doing today, and while they destroy, we plant.
Like fighting the tide with a teaspoon.
People tell me there are no bees here any more - the apiculturists who put their hives in their olive groves that they spray several times a year to deter hornets (not asiatic hornets, just boring, gentle, European hornets) are puzzled by their decline. Meanwhile, I throw hives into random spots in the forest, and they are all full of bees who chose them as home.
Butterflies and moths abound - we have Europe’s largest moth, and the world’s smallest butterfly, and meadow fritillaries coat the riverbanks like a gently breathing carpet, scattering in clouds as you approach.
All we do is we let nature be, work with existing systems, cut some dead brash here to make a path, scatter some seeds and saplings there to grow the patch of scrubby trees.
Even the custodians of nature have completely lost their connection, as when one owns a tractor, one must use it.
So on I go with the teaspoon.
Who suffer are actually poor people. There is even a recent example: chemical fertilizers ban in Sri Lanka. It destroyed local farming and many poor people struggle a lot as the consequences.
Honey comes from a farm animal, the honey bee, that is out competing other native animals, and has all the fun problems of a monoculture.
We step over dollar bills to pick up pennies, and it’s very hard to get red pilled out of it.
I'm sitting in a comfy airchair, drinking tea, and enjoying life while it is still possible. And in spite of all common sense, spending a lot of time and money planting trees and bushes, as I have done since 2010.
Short of a nuclear war, I don't think humanity will get close to extinction. But I think we are on a path to lose access to today's cultural knowledge (like microchips, vaccines, aviation). If the population is forced to shrink over the next couple of centuries, wars over fertile ground seem more likely than specialized global supply chains.
It is pretty apparent that we are going to have water problems in the coming decades. You don't need to be a scientist to put those two together.
I am not saying we can't fix it, I do not hold the same outlook as OP. But we will have problems. Even if you don't believe global warming, there is obvious signs of issues popping up with water, and heat. Mexico, parts of USA, Canada, etc limiting water usage and saying they'll run out if it doesn't rain. That will be a problem.
Think of many extinction events this planet had previously. Up to 90% of life died.
However, humanity needs to pay more respect to the habitats of the native species. But for a few dollars people easily looks the other way, unfortunately.
We'll be fine without corals, polar bears and with half rainforests.
Harsh weather events are coming, but we will be fine.
Forestwise:
> Since the end of the last ice age — 10,000 years ago — the world has lost one-third of its forests [0]
> Half of the global forest loss occurred between 8,000 BCE and 1900; the other half was lost in the last century alone. [0]
Good news: rich countries forest are in growing again in a U curve. Bad news: those countries also imports more wood than ever.
Coral polypes are habitats for many other species that some humans depends.