In article ,
says...
As far as the view that "this small planet" is desperately impacted by
the actions of those within it; this seems to be hubris of a high order.
Can one mess up one's local environment? Absolutely, 19'th century London
is a prime example of that, as are some of our own industrial cities at the
beginning of the industrial revolution. Can we "destroy the planet"? That
is highly debateable; consider the amount of energy and pollution that just
*one* volcanic explosion can produce compared to the output of an
industrialized nation.

Ah, a Rush Limbagh fan. Can we destroy the planet? Probably not- but
I've no doubt that we can make it a rather unpleasant place to live.
I used to buy the line about global warming being junk science, but
it's a little late in the game to keep pretending it isn't there- go
watch the weather channel for a bit- the climate has changed quite a
bit already. There are very few places on the Earth that aren't
directly altered by human beings, and while one person using an
aerosol can isn't going to a darn thing to the ecology, 6 billion of
us doing it sure can.

While we may not destroy the planet, or render it absolutely sterile,
it's certainly possible that we can make it a worse place to live.
That's reason enough to think about using resources sensibly. It may
not take that much dramatic change on the part of every person to make
a huge difference to the whole. We're still going to need oil, we're
still going to have to cut down trees- it's not like we should all go
back to living in caves and riding on horseback or any of that
nonsense, but there is certainly room for admitting that something is
happening and working towards a reasonable solution.