Once upon a time I was obsessed with the environment and everything in it. I used to cry, “All the trees are dying!” or, “The ozone layer is receding!” You know, the typical tree-hugger stuff. I didn’t want us to wipe out the rainforests. I didn’t want more than a hundred species eradicated every week. I used to cry about the vast stupidity of mankind. I used to scream to God for help and even research ways to stop this massive slaughter of earth’s natural environment. I thought that humans deserved death for the damage they had done.

Finally, after learning that 1 billion years is a blink of an eye for our wonderful planet, it hit me: The great, powerful, living planet with which God blessed us is NOT going to die from pitiful human waste and damage. We couldn’t destroy Earth no matter how hard we try. We are a speck of dust in Earth’s eye; the worst we could ever do is give the planet a slight scratch on the sclera. Nothing a few blinks, a couple billions of years, can’t cure. When we finally destroy ourselves, the ecosystems will flow over our cities within centuries. The last trace of humans ever living will be buried in the distant past.
The great thing about life is that it is adaptable and can replenish itself. It can populate an entire planet, starting with the smallest germ. Life is beautiful and there is no way that we will be able to wipe it out, no matter how irresponsible and self-indulgent we might be.

So now, I only worry about myself. I don’t stress when others fail to recycle or when a neighbor buys a new gas-guzzling car. I do my part to preserve the planet, but let the rest go. I know that the worst that can happen is that we will drive ourselves into extinction. And when human life expires, the Earth will rejoice. All the bad we’re doing won’t permanently damage Earth one bit.