Who are we saving again?

Some of those ads about nature conservation & reducing pollution are certainly very powerful and emotive. But  in recent years, I have come to see a fundamental flaw that prevents them from having any lasting effect on the psyche of people and make them actually do something. A lot of it has stemmed from all I have learnt about the universe since childhood. But what made me think about it more is the philosophy of Ian Malcolm, a character in Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park series. 

We as humans are often fooled by this illusion of grandeur. Some religions preach about the 'special' place of humans in the scheme of things. It comes from the technological advances as well. While the scientists responsible for them generally have a sense of nobility towards the cosmic forces, the end-users of the technology are overwhelmed with a misplaced sense of invincibility. So, when they see a slogan like "Save the Earth", they will inevitably have a laid-back attitude towards it. It makes it seem like an act of philanthropy, which it most certainly isn't. Moreover, if you think about it a little more, that slogan itself is false. Yes, we are disturbing the delicate balance in various ecological systems throughout our world. We have caused extinctions of several species, and are still pushing more species towards it. But lets look at the bigger picture. A few hundred years down the line (or probably much, much sooner), we may have caused enough irreparable damage to cause a whole bunch of species, including ourselves, to be extinct. Now step back to see this from the Earth's point of view. For the Earth, this will be just the latest addition to the many extinctions that have occurred in its near 4 billion year history. It is quite likely that in the next few millennia at the most, a fresh batch of ecological systems will replace the ones that were wiped away. As a species, we have achieved a lot, and made phenomenal progress since the first Homo Sapiens appeared 200,000 years ago. If we stretch it to our entire genus, it will make us about 3 million years old. But, take for example dinosaurs, who were the dominant genus for well over 100 million years, and how easily they were wiped out and forgotten. So its funny that people think its the Earth we are saving from being doomed, and that if the worst happens, somewhere in the future, we will fly off to another habitable planet in a ship. Going by how scientists struggle for funding to even look at habitable planets elsewhere in the Universe, I wonder if anyone would have the foresight soon enough for us to develop a reasonable plan of action for that. So, if its a gradual extinction from the extremities of shifting weather conditions, or an instantaneous wipe-out from a nuclear holocaust, its our species that is at stake. The Earth and most certainly the Universe will go on without as much as a hiccup. 

So boys & girls, next time you put that can of soda in the recycle bin, remember, you're not saving the Earth, you're saving your own sorry ass!