Humans are strange. We collectively seem almost incapable of preparing for the future. We either just react out of fear (such as the War on Terror or War on Drugs, but these are impotent acts that serve no purpose) or we don’t even notice (sometimes actively avoiding aknowledgment of) the real threats.
I hear people arguing about Global Warming. Its a stupid debate based on ignorance and ideology. We do know that the global weather is changing. The reasons are less clear, but that is all the more reason we should be careful. This is known as the precautionary principle. We should stop adding massive pollution to the environment not because we know what it does but because we don’t know what it does.
Anyways, we do know that pollution is bad for us. If pollution doesn’t lead to climate changes that kills us, then the pollution itself might kill us. The increase of many diseases such as cancer is probably directly related to pollution. We look for cures for cancer, but why don’t we look for preventing it at the source? Is there a reason we want to poison ourselves? Are we collectively trying to commit suicide?
We could’ve entirely converted to alternative energies decades ago. Why are we still arguing about alternative energy? Why don’t we instead invest our best minds in finding a solution? Pretty much everyone agrees that we’ll run out of oil fairly soon. Why do humans have to wait until the last moment, until its almost too late before acting?
Also, why are we so careless? More animals have died because of the Industrial Revolution than from the Ice Age. Actually, we don’t even know how many species we’ve killed. Most species have probably gone extinct before they were discovered.
On top of all of this, when Yellowstone blows it will be the biggest volcano in the world. It would annihalate the whole population of North America and blacken the skies for months across the world. The magma pocket is overdue for explosion and its been more active recently.
Any single factor is of limited importance. Climate change isn’t necessarily significant in itself. However, mutliple factors combined simultaneously could be game-enders for our species. So, we have massive pollution, massive extinction and ecosystem collapse, massive climate change, and massive volcano. Instead of increasing the number of possible threats, wouldn’t it be smarter to decrease them? A Yellowstone explosion would certainly change the global environment and cause widescale species extinction, but we are already doing this to ourselves. Are we so excited about total annihalation that we can’t wait for nature to do it for us?
If we humans don’t manage to kill ourselves and all of life on Earth, it will be direct evidence of God’s intervention.
Marmalade 
Excellent.
Also: We might as well be yeast.
Yep. That sentence was my basic thought for the whole blog. Ignorance isn’t the problem per se. Not admitting to one’s ignorance and not seeking to alleviate it is the problem.
We spend more money on war or entertainment than we do on studying the environment. Probably even less than a percentage of the money we spend on the millitary could fund research that would revolutionize our understanding of the environment.
Its all about priorities. Considering that the US spends more money on millitary than on anything else makes clear what the US government’s (and presumedly the US citizen’s) priority is. Schools struggle for funding and yet the wars in the world are endless.
We don’t lack the money or intelligence to change. We lack the motivation. The problem is that humans are just aggressive primates with opposable thumbs. We can’t change our inherent nature.