Nice post, Lee. I often think the same way. We are in a real quandary, and I wonder if we have what it takes to break free before extinction is unavoidable.

You guys know what I think. If people can't even stop stupid habits like smoking (for instance), what chance do they have of their existence not going up in smoke as well?

I am continually disturbed by even the fine neighbors I have. They live in the best part of the country and have many resources, but they don't care to hear anything about conspiracy theories. So even though they have what others would kill for, they end up just being ignorant, and will loose what they have because ignorance will not "succeed"

Human confrontation requires knowledge of real threat, and the willingness and ability to counter..

It's the same old story -- humans think they know it all, that they know best, and then Nature slaps us so hard, we see stars! I am reminded of the Department of Interior's decision to remove the wolves from Yellowstone back in the 1920s, and the park ecosystem gradually went to Hell in a hand basket. That decision affected things as diverse from wolves as the aspen trees!

Well, we just don't learn. We catch all the big fish in the oceans, and then we wonder why fish get smaller and smaller.

I wish I could find a series of pictures I once saw of sports fishermen posing with their "big catches" on the dock in Florida. There was a picture for each decade, starting in the 1940s up through the 2000s. The fish were monstrously huge back in the 1940s, but they shrank every decade until the most modern photo showed relatively dinky trophy fish.

And the scientists are just now announcing their amazing new discovery?

Amazing.