Why saving the planet is selfish

First, I will have to credit the legendary stand up comic George Carlin for this insight. I have been pondering about this thought for quite some time but he articulated it perfectly for me.

The Earth is a magnificent gem of complex processes. Let’s talk about the rain. The sole activity of raining involves complex processes. Bodies of water from the Earth’s surface will reach a certain temperature because of the Sun’s heat. Once hitting that temperature, the water will evaporate – turning into a gaseous matter. The water vapors becomes so light, that it rises into the sky. The sky has dust and other science stuff that will trap the water vapors. The water vapor will cool down and find its friends and form an entourage called cloud – otherwise known as precipitation. Then, the entourage gets too crowded with water vapors and they will not get along. One of the water vapors will say “This cloud is not big enough for all of use” and kick the others down back to Earth.

They will come and look for Spielberg for Jaws.

Everyday, tons and tons of sea creatures die in the ocean – sometimes even people when they pick a blue ring octopus and dip into wasabi or when they think they have gills. But it doesn’t get smelly. Leave one fish on your sink for a week and your house will smell like you walked in an OB Gyne’s office after spring break. That is because the ocean cures itself. It has minerals and even biological components that basically consumes death and turn it into fish fast food.

But with the presence of people, the Earth has become somewhat like an old prostitute – you once want to explore it’s caves and crevices, but now, you would probably die of toxins or catch skin cancer.

Because of the damages we’ve done with the Earth, people have risen up (environmentalists as we call them) to try and fix things. We want to revert the effect of climate change, we want to rehabilitate forests, and save endangered species. We want to save the Earth. But the thing is, it doesn’t need  to be saved.

As I’ve said, this little blue planet is composed of complex  processes. It started as a ball of hot steaming crap and transformed itself into a beautiful livable habitat – without humans helping it. In fact, before humans, the Earth was perfectly fine. Do we really think that we can screw this planet up and it will not be able to heal itself? Whatever garbage we put on Earth, it can swallow and melt with its lava. We do not have anything that Earth cannot destroy and turn into rock – just give it time.

However, should the Earth becomes unlivable, the people will not live. if the air we breathe becomes too polluted, we will die in less than five minutes. If water becomes scarce, most of us will look for Sprite and try to dive in it – but we can’t. If our lands cannot grow food, we will probably eat each other starting with those jerks who polluted the Earth. But the Earth will outlive us – maybe all of us.

The Earth is slowly becoming too populated. Food production grows at a numerical pace but population grows at an exponential pace, this is true then, it is much worse now. Too bad we don’t have an app that will fill our hunger. This is why many countries are trying to stop over population. How long will it take before our race becomes eradicated? Maybe we can fight for as long as we can. In fact, maybe we can put up the greatest battle ever waged for survival. But in the end, we may lose. But we cannot destroy this Earth.

We need to start taking care of it for our sake. We can screw it over and over and over again, like bed bugs feasting on a hairless kid. But it will be fine. It may take billions of years more, but it will cure itself. But by then, homo sapiens might be the fossil fuels our succeeding species with no limbs (just powerful telekinesis) will be using to power up their levitating homes.