Conversation with a conservative about conservation

The earth is huge and resilient and nothing that we do will break it. It is like pissing in the ocean. And if one believes the heretics, then the earth is like a few billion years old and will be around for a few million if not billion years. True.

So why bother with Environmental Conservation, you say.

It is not about the earth, stupid. You probably think thunder is Thor farting in the heavens.

The earth was here long before us humans arrived and will still be spinning around the sun after we are extinct (unless the Hadron collider sucks it to a blackhole). It is not about saving the earth; it is about saving our own puny asses. It is not about the cute panda bear that was in that Kung fu movie. It is all about you. Us. It is about our lunch and dinner; food production being tied to the climate. It is about the roof on top of our heads. It is the air we need, the water we thirst for. It is about our money, our children and our life. It is not about not ruining the earth, it is about not ruining our chances of existing in it.

Don't do it for the polar bear. You know what, I don't think they are cuddly either. Conservation is selfish self-interest, pure and simple

On a grey and miserable day in the ant-hill called Sydney, people cantering in and out of shops at Pitt Street, I wonder maybe, just maybe, who cares if we survive?