There are more issues at stake here than just the global temperature of the earth. If you look at the average american household, you will see hundreds of chemicals that are toxic to our own health as well as the health of the environment we live in. We are polluting the world and polluting our bodies all in the name of a world shaped by humans. We have this mindset of domination over nature that is ruining us. We produce plastics because what can be found in nature isn't good enough, only those plastics are permanent additions to an environment that isn't permanent. They don't breakdown. They stay there for hundreds of years, choking birds and ruining the landscape. They give off poisonous vapors that cause us cancer so we have to go into hospitals and be treated with synthesized drugs in a synthesized and sterilized environment.
We use cars because our legs just don't cut it anymore. And in the process, we develop roads the limit the natural migration of animals and cause massive floads due to their imperveous surfaces. The oils and lubricants and fuels that go into each vehicle have to be produced at factories and refineries that pollute the air we breathe. The metal for the vehicles come from land that must be destroyed in order for the ore to be extracted. And then, we trap ourselves in our cars everyday in our commute to work to pay for it. We get stuck in traffic, breathing in the toxic fumes of that "new car smell" and the pollution being pumped out of tailpipes.
We get stressed out at our jobs, get angry at our families and friends because we are frustrated, and then pop some prozac when our lives go down the drain and we turn depressed.
We have created a cycle of pollution and destruction all in the name of consumerism. If we didn't have to buy that car, we wouldn't work so hard, we wouldn't be stressed out and angry, we wouldn't feel the need to lock ourselves away in that car when the world gets to overwhelming. We wouldn't be polluting our water and soil with oil and antifreeze, we wouldn't be polluting our bodies with toxins, we wouldn't be destroying the world as fast as we are. Hell, maybe if we stopped using cars, we would have time and money to invest into growing a garden, eliminating the need to drive to the supermarket to buy mass produced, pesticide-laden, pieces of organic matter with no nutritional value. We wouldn't need to use synthetic fertilizers that ruin our soil and contribute even more to the problems we face.
It is so frustrating to hear people say that we should just "screw it" and keep on destroying the world because it is inevitable. IT'S NOT INEVITABLE. We can do things to prevent the worlds ecosystems from crashing. We can do things to revitalize the environment. The people who say screw it are simply cowards who are afraid of change. The don't want to sacrifice their video games and cars to ensure a future for our children.
