Call me selfish, but I'm not sweating over the polar bears and glaciers over at the poles (no pun intended). If it's not going to affect me in my lifetime, then I don't really care.
But it's happening right now. As in, we as both a generation and a species is gonna be the ones affected. From even a satanist perspective,
Maybe that viewpoint will change when/if I have children, but I'd rather be putting my effort into a more tangible, individualistic goal (for me, that'd be up in the front lines studying regenerative biology) rather than trying to convince the whole entirety of the human population to make drastic changes in their lifestyles to reduce the amount of heat being trapped within the atmosphere, when geothermal records clearly display that this is a natural cycle for our planet that happens over a bajillion trillion zillion years- it's just happening a bit faster.
It's happening a lot faster than usual, mostly due to our carbon emissions, and in such a way as to be rather counter-intuitive to the regular shifts in climate; it's not a problem in the sense that the earth can go through with it just fine, but it is the problem in the sense that it's gonna kill a lot of us if left unchecked. Additionally, worrying about carbon emissions is a pretty big deal economically, too, since oil, the primary source for all our fuel getting drained out fast, and it'd be much better for us to find nicer, more renewable alternatives, and, of course, switch to them.
This has happened before, and the world persevered. I personally think that, as humans, we need to stop flipping our shit over Earth and focus more on the preservation of our race. We aren't going to "stop" global warming, nor should we. It's natural. Instead, maybe we should focus and combine on the two things we are hella good at: making shit and being all smart and tech savvy, and ADAPTATION.
We have big ol' brains for a reason, people. But guess what? We are still filthy animals. And what do shit-eating dung beetles and deranged muddy boars do? Well, they do a lot. They search for the biggest poops when food is scarce and they try to find the jumbo-est mud puddles on the hottest days. They don't fucking put on superman outfits and try to stop a zillion year old cycle from happening.
This has happened before, but without us, and with the times that it did happen, it killed a lot of beasties just like us. I agree that we shouldn't be all flipping about mother earth and all that, since our planet can take care of itself, but the thing is, we can't live right with this massive threat on our shoulders; a climate warming with the rate it's currently going would give us a lot of bull, especially for those cities near coasts, and for any businesses (such as agriculture) dependent on the stability of our climate. And since this massive acceleration is something we can actually work on and try to curtail, why shouldn't we try and do so? Shouldn't the survival of our species be one of our top goals as human beings?
We're not really putting on superman costumes with this problem, either; most scientists see this problem as a thing we caused, and we ourselves are the only ones capable of solving. What we're gonna do by trying to solve this is essentially adaptation, but in a much more socially conscious way; after all, we are the ones who'll have to ADAPT into not putting as much shit in our atmosphere. And besides, one thing sets us apart from those filthy animals: we actually know what's going on. Do you think those filthy animals, if they knew what was going on in their world and if they knew what to do about it, would not do the same thing as we're aiming to do now?
Our niche in this world is not to save Earth. I'm pretty sure this planet can do that by itself. Our job is to survive. So, instead of trying to stop global warming, we should be focusing on how to live through it once it gets super crazy. Think of this world as a bundle of raw material- material that we can use to learn, to discover and to become greater, cooler people with awesome gadgets. We are not super-saiyan Godpeople- yet. But we are getting there, slowly.
Maybe one day we will discover how to cultivate another planet, so global warming will not even matter. Worried about extinct animals and plants? Take DNA samples, and one day we can bring those species back. Search for other answers- the opportunities are endless.
Of course, that is assuming we're capable of persevering while maintaining the momentum of our progress. But the current rate of global warming will, if left unchecked, most certainly destroy said momentum, essentially halting, or even taking aback all our progress. Besides, if the people who can afford it can't in general be bothered to try and curtail global warming when the problem is becoming fairly clearer and clearer, how the hell can we as a species even show that we're capable of handling any answers at all? Of becoming, as you say, "Godpeople"?
