humans are destroying themselves by destroying the planet

[mrmcdonaldduck]

hi

are we by destroying the planet gradually destroying ourselves?
for example:
in the amazon there is a plant that would have cured the next major disease but we destroyed the amazon to make room for crops and grazing land

did we by destroying that plant to make room for food help ourselves or doom us to major deaths?

[Sapphire]

The Amazon rain forest isn't completely destroyed yet.

People can live in harmony with nature without permanently destroying it.
Sustainable forests for our furniture. Sustainable farming methods. Sustainable energy resources. Curbing our wasteful behaviours and increasing our recycling and reusing of products.
These all help but many aren't interested.

[Underground_Network]

My sentiments exactly.

It's possible to live in tune with nature. It's possible for humans to form a mutual relationship with the natural world around them...

But it simply isn't happening. Because not enough people are willing to make a stand.

The only reason I don't think humans are destroying themselves by destroying the planet (though I think on a very large [time] scale, they are), is because most humans are too ignorant to perceive the cost of their actions. Most (or maybe some?) don't care what they do to the planet, and in turn they ignore (and often are unaffected by) what they do (or don't do to maintain) the planet.

Most people who feel the negative affects of mistreating the environment are not the wrongdoers themselves, but people simply living in the effected region.

[YourFriend]

Yes, by destroying the planet, we destroy ourselves, in my opinion.

[Skeln]

I saw we are in the long run because we are causing harm to the enviroment that is precious to us and can possibly cure many diseases present and in the future. Not to mention the next generation will have to suffer the consequences that were caused by our actions.

[Death]

If we are damaging the very planet on which we live, we can easily start to cause damage to humanity and every other life form on Earth so yes, we are doing some bad damage here which will only get worse if we do not improve.

[Whisper]

we aren't destroying the planet
we're altering the current ecosystem in a fashion that for humanity and other organisms will have a negative effect
Gia has been through allot worse throughout the last few billion years
the planet and Life will survive
Gia, is going nowhere

as for if we ae hurting ourselves? yes absolutely to an unfathomable degree
we're a very young and stubborn species
we will do the right thing, we always do
but only after every other option has been exhausted

[INFERNO]

we aren't destroying the planet
we're altering the current ecosystem in a fashion that for humanity and other organisms will have a negative effect
Gia has been through allot worse throughout the last few billion years
the planet and Life will survive
Gia, is going nowhere

as for if we ae hurting ourselves? yes absolutely to an unfathomable degree
we're a very young and stubborn species
we will do the right thing, we always do
but only after every other option has been exhausted

I agree with this. However, will our doing of the "right thing" be in time or would it be too late?

We are in a way destroying ourselves but with the increasing technology and science, we are helping ourselves and others. Overall, I'd say we're doing more destroying than helping but our amounts of helping are increasing our survival and the survival of some other organisms. Eventually the science may serve as a buffer for certain aspects of the damage to not go too far in terms of its effects on humans (and possibly other organisms).

Eventually though, more of humanity will have to realize that despite the massive amounts of money hotels and homes can provide, we'll be in an area that is too stressed out with too little green areas. Humans are for the most part incredibly stubborn and once we're in an area with buildings and roads and little green area, my guess is we'll want something to relieve the stress and eventually it'll be down to a nice green area. We'll try to artificially create that as realistic as possible.

So the point of this is, our advancements will eventually come to bite us good and hard in the ass and we'll be stuck trying to figure some way to get something that we no longer naturally have.

[sebbie]

We are changing things in the planet and environment. These changes have both positive and negative effects, which one outweighs the other I am not fully sure.

But in general speculation, in the long run we will have exhausted certain resources for example crude oil, caused the extinction of animal and plant species etc, this will all have implications on the survival of humans.

I think a major problem with environmental and planetary conservation is the short term thinking that a lot of the population has. By this I mean the live for today, forget about the consequences tomorrow.

[The Batman]

After we're all gone the earth will win. Anything that we are doing now will be fixed by the planet it might take thousands of years but we're still not good enough to destroy this planet.

[INFERNO]

After we're all gone the earth will win. Anything that we are doing now will be fixed by the planet it might take thousands of years but we're still not good enough to destroy this planet.

True, however, we are good enough to destroy the planet, or at least the part that we live on for our life. I doubt though that if we destroy every bit of a tree and every seed that exists of it then that tree will spring up once again years later.

[Bluearmy]

I blame our economic system of mass production and disposal. We waste tons of resources and make a ton of toxic pollutants to create something that most of us dispose of in under six months.

I heard somewhere that if every nation was demanding and disposing as much as the U.S, we would need about 4-5 planets!

[INFERNO]

I blame our economic system of mass production and disposal. We waste tons of resources and make a ton of toxic pollutants to create something that most of us dispose of in under six months.

I agree, we do waste so many good resources. I've worked in some restaurants and I was shocked at the amount of food and good find mind you that the restaurant just dumped. I'm not referring to when a customer doesn't like a certain food, I'm referring to when food gets carelessly wasted and quality food is treated like shit I flush down the drain.

This also goes for ordinary homes. I can say that when I cook or my parents cook, if we are to use some food, then we try to use every part that is edible. For a lemon, we'll use the zest of it until it's white on the outside and then the fresh lemon juice until we can hardly get anything else out of it. But we don't get the fresh lemon juice and toss out the perfectly usable zest of it. Or when you're eating something off the bone and rather than dig in and get the nice meat near the bone, you just toss it out.


I heard somewhere that if every nation was demanding and disposing as much as the U.S, we would need about 4-5 planets!

As nice as that sounds, do you have a source for it?

[Bluearmy]

It was a statement a girl said in a video called The Story of Stuff.


Here is the piece of it.
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It is a bit one sided, and some of the thing are exaggerated, but I believe that one part.

[MykeSoBe]

I think that we are doing mass damage by taking advantage of our planet's natural resources, yes I do. But I believe that we are never going to take this green / eco-friendly stuff seriously. See, eventually, the mistake will have to happen in order for everyone to learn a lesson. We don't really learn unless we get to the point that we reflect on our sins/wrongdoings and say, "Please, just give us another chance!"

[punkjake]

I'm no hippie but i do agree we're messing with earths nateral chemistery like messing up its heat with carbon,but thats has been happening already but we're speeding it up,i want to help,i recycle and useless energy blah blah,i would use solar panels,but I'm just 13 and my parents won't listen,but i don't really want to drive a hybrid.

[JunkBondTrader]

I think human population is a far bigger risk to the planet than how much we pollute. As the population increases then so does the amount of resources we use as a species and eventually, with too many people we'll tap the planet dry. The world's population is on the rise and our planet can't deal with that many people. Unfortunately there's not much we can do about it. You can't blame people for having kids.