I'm concerned that humans will mess up the Earth pretty badly. We've already caused all this pollution and have killed way too many animals. We've unbalanced nature and that could lead to dire consequences.

I'm not actually concerned, even though we have some really big problems. My lack of concern isn't because I think it's all going to turn out wonderful and there's no corrective action required; my lack of concern is simply grounded in the fact that I'm pretty good at staying "present" in life: living here and now. This is something that I recommend to everyone who's worried about anything, whether it's the future of the Earth or their children or their own future. But make no mistake about it, the way we're caring for our planet (or rather, failing to care for our planet) is going to cause problems that are serious. Whether or not global warming turns out to be the monster predicted, there are many ways in which our sheer numbers, lack of interest in sustainable lifestyles, and lack of self-discipline in restraining our endless appetite for more, more, and more will eventually cause things to go very wrong planet-wide. What can I do about that? What can anybody do about that? I think it has to be addressed at two different levels: individually, I need to untangle my own greed, fear, and indifference. I can't help humanity if I can't help myself. This has to do with personal development and satisfaction: when people are basically unhappy and needy, they have little regard for the impact they're having on others and their environment. As long as a person's primary focus is on their own problems, suffering, and desires, it's really not possible to divert their attention to larger issues -- unless doing so provides them with an ego distraction from their own problems. But that kind of relationship to global issues isn't helpful. So at an individual level, we need to learn to be satisfied with modest, ordinary lives. This is actually right in line with individual spiritual development anyway, so that's not really new advice. At a group level, we need to learn about the basic dynamics of "group ego": nations, religious affiliations, corporations, and other collections of people tend to behave much like an egotistical individual -- they put their own interests ahead of the interests of the Whole, and tend to see other groups as "the enemy". This generates endless quarrels and divisions, up to and including warfare... and again, it distracts everyone from the larger problems which face us all. Buddhist teacher David Loy calls this group mentality "wego" (as in "we + ego"), which is a word I really like: the groups which humanity has divided themselves up into need to learn to restrain their wego, just as an individual needs to learn to restrain his or her ego. When that program is working, wego/ego ceases to dominate the entire landscape of the discussion, and it becomes possible to talk, think, and act in terms of the good of the Whole. I think it's extremely unlikely that we'll be able to avoid catastrophic consequences for our planet unless we learn this at a global level.

I'm not so worried about the planet. She'll shrug us off like a bad cold, then spend a few million years cleansing herself of any last vestige of us. And then another species will rise to dominance. I AM concerned about us as a species. We are making the planet we live on uninhabitable for us. Unfortunately, I don't see anybody with serious power really doing anything about it until it affects them directly.