How Arrogant Are We?

Posted by Shirley Siluk Gregory May 8, 2007

One of the least well reasoned arguments I hear against global warming and other environmental threats goes like this: "How arrogant are you to think that we puny humans can have any measurable, much less catastrophic, impact on a massive, billions-year-old system like Earth?"

Just arrogant enough to jive with reality, it would appear.

Was it arrogance to think we could split the atom, build an A bomb and harness nuclear energy? Been there, done that.

Was it arrogance to think we could so pollute the environment that water could burn? Look up "Cuyahoga River fire."

Was it arrogance to believe we could wipe out an entire species of creatures? We've done so over and over again, just in the past few hundred years: dodo bird, passenger pigeon, Florida red wolf, Steller's sea cow, and on and on.

So is it arrogance to believe that small humans -- by the billions, mind you -- could collectively consume enough natural resources, produce enough waste, eliminate enough natural habitat for other species and pump enough warmth-absorbing gases into the atmosphere that we might actually alter the face of nature?

Clearly, our actions can have a real impact on the planet. The arrogance lies with those who choose not to believe the well supported evidence that shows it's so.