I loved this article:

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/12/george-will-earth-doesn-t-care-what-is-done-to-it.html?gt1=43002

I'm sure it (or the theory behind it) will generate a lot of negative comments from one group and cheers from the other... both kind of missing the point.

He's not advocating to keep polluting, nor is he advocating to avoid conservation. His point is that as a species we have an enthusiastic sense of our importance. It is highly probable that as a species we won't survive more than a few million or tens of millions of years at best. It's highly probably that no matter what we do, conserve, don't conserve, or whatever, something beyond our control will happen that will wipe us out. That's just the way the universe kind of works. It doesn't really value human life any more than it values a bacteria or a tree frog.

The reason to conserve and be concerned about the environment is really just a short term self preservation issue. That's it.

Of course, over consuming resources and polluting are simply byproducts of our natural behavior. Because of our adherence to outdated hierarchical power structures we think there must be some kind of king and a bunch of servants running around. So we extend that outward and create ideas like "God" and "Man" and "Nature" and put them into some kind of bizarre oppositional relationship. God rules man and man rules nature. Thus nature becomes this thing that has to be dominated and tamed. The other point of view is equally silly. That if we come into harmony with nature and just accept it, everything will be peachy.

Nature is brutal and indifferent. Humans are just not very important. If we "make it," good for us. If we don't... no one except us really cares. And that's pretty much how it is.

The great irony is that our over-exaggerated sense of self worth is A PART of nature and a part of our survival skills. It is not some distinct thing that sits outside (whatever "sits outside" might mean).

We don't seem too concerned that the dinosaurs were around for millions of years and then got wiped out which allows us to fuel our cars and drive to Wal-Mart. Why would the next generation of species care if we get wiped out and have our carbon recycled into something that they can use?