I was listening some standup comedy at youtube while the autoplay list presented me with this little jewel I really recommend other's to listen:
I couldn't help but to notice that he is: ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about several things.
We are fucked, all the "environmentalist" movements are -indirectly- not "taking care of the planet" but rather "taking care of us". There's nothing wrong with that, after all, we WANT to survive, prevail and thrive. Yet, a little adjustment of premises and mottos to reflect a more honest motif of existence.
Earth IS self-regulating.
Here, Carlin does not mention when absolutely ALL LIFE ON EARTH was threatened of extinction by unicellular organisms.
It nearly destroyed all life, yet... Life, as we know it would not have been possible thanks to it and the mentioned self-regulation.
It cause the first mass extinction we know about by sending free oxygen molecules into the atmosphere. Unicellular little fuckers.
Cyanobacteria, they lack nuclei or organelles, are the reason we are standing here today. Earth did not always possess the atmospheric mixture of gases we know it has today. 3.5 billion years ago it was mostly composed of methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. Oxygen was trapped in other molecules like water, not free-roaming in the air.
The oceans were dwelled by anaerobic molecules. And, of course, being anaerobic; they did not need oxygen to live. At some point, 2.5 and 3.5 billion years ago one of these -probably floating in the surface of the ocean-, learned a new skill: photosynthesis.
Those no longer had to rely on feeding off other particles to survive. They started creating their own food: Converting carbon dioxide and water into O2 and sugars, a nearly limitless supply of energy.
Those are the granddaddies of the mentioned cyanobacteria.
Photosynthesis was a huge adaptive advantage over other species, producing their own energy (Matrix, would've had a whole different story line if machines knew about this!).
As you could imagine, they thrived... While doing something we are very familiar with: Polluting the atmosphere, in this case, with oxygen (something that nobody used back then, and could be considered a contaminant).
The first traces of oxygen were soaked by non-biologic chemical reactions like iron oxidation or decomposition of cells, yet, after a couple hundred million years, the cyanobacteria produced more oxygen than the ecologic system could cope with, stacking up the air with it.
"Earth was fucked"... No, the inhabitants of that time were. Oxygen was toxic to them.
What happened then?
2.5 billion years ago there was a extinction of virtually all life on Earth while cyanobacteria suvived. This event was called the Great Oxygenation Event.
Another problem came across.
Methane always acted as a powerful greenhouse gas that kept the Earth from cooling, the extra oxygen reacted with it forming CO2 (carbon dioxide) and water, this one, does not make a good heat trap. This led into Earth's first -and probably longest- ice age.
The thinner atmospheric blanket caused Earth's first, and possibly longest, ice age: the Huronian Glaciation.
But...
Aerobic organisms, appeared into stage, taking that extra oxygen for themselves. The balance of gases moved back and forth until it became pretty much the atmosphere we have today.
Who are we to say that "we are destroying the planet" while we graciously dodge the rest of the sentence?
"We are destroying the planet, for ourselves". But life, Earth, will always prevail.