If we want to look beyond ourselves, we can blame the human dilemma on technical progression, itself, as is done by the writers of many books (The Postman, Antibodies, etc.) and movies ("The Terminator," "Water World, etc.),. Then again, possibly the fact that humankind is just a bit too adept, bright and capable, when stacked up against many other species, represents the crux of our difficulties.
 
Regardless of the reason, "human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about." -- World Scientists, in a warning to Humanity in 1992
 
Like the pharmaceutical industry's management, that keeps asking "What new ailment can we make up, like restless leg syndrome or halitosis, to get people to part with their dollars," we just can't seem to stop trying to imagine new ways to advance ourselves at the expense of others. We can seem to stop turning everything of the Earth, including other people, into a commodity.
 
So what are we to do about this grave trouble? What IS a way out?
 
Most of all, we need to give up the illusion that all is well in the world because most of us have the same daily life as always, along with the same mindless sitcoms and news programs as ever reassuring us that kittens getting stuck in trees get rescued, the latest fashion is cute, the car accident rate is offset by better safety features, a new hairdo will perk us up, the mall is a fun place for pick-ups, sports stars exude raw manliness; scantily clad starlets, despite that they overindulge, are hot and similar such banal pabulum. All of this might create a sense of well-being, but it is misplaced and dangerous in light of the planetary perils that surround us.
 
All the same, there are more television sets than people in the average American household, where a set is normally turned on for more than eight hours per day and the typical person watches it for more than 32 hours per week, according to Nielsen Media Research. Such a pleasing fictitious world as the TV offers surely helps create the other comforting false world in which many people, surely, reside! With its easy laughs and distracting fatuous patter, TV can well help us pretend that all, truly, is pretty swell in life! Besides, who wants to face uncomfortable harsh realities, anyway?
 
Meanwhile another way out of our dilemma, one with a little more impact, would be to think about the manner in which we live and whether there are any areas that we could improve so as to make less of an environmental footprint. Do we really need to have one more child, another consumer, using up and competing against ever so many others for the world's shrinking resources? At the same time, do we really need to drain the wetlands in our backyard because, while they help with natural water purification and biodiversity, we would prefer the look of green monoculture grass? In addition, do we really need that carbon laden, extra jet trip for pleasure or business or can we find an alternative way to satisfactorily achieve our goals? Likewise, can we cut back on eating high on the food chain as this, too, has ecological ramifications? Simultaneously, can we buy less goods since the more that we rapaciously take, the more that the overtaxed natural world is forced to yield? Most of all, can we cut back on our energy consumption, regardless of the way that we go about it, so that we can slow down the ravage of beleaguered places like the Appalachian Mountains and Chukchi Sea?
 
According to Peter Marshall, "Above all, we should question the consumer ethic, which uses up non-renewable resources, creates inequality and injustice, generates pollution, destroys other species and upsets the balance of nature. The consumer ethic not only defiles the environment by creating undesirable change in the biosphere but also corrupts the mind and body by defining pleasure in terms of ownership and absorption. Waste itself is a human concept; everything in nature is eventually used. If human beings carry on in their present ways, they will one day be recycled along with the dinosaurs."
 
This in mind, each and every one of us needs to critically examine the ways that we go about our lives and make adjustments as needed. If we do not, we will have not only put our own generation in peril, but will have condemned future ones -- humans, other animals and plants alike -- to be at risk for never existing at all. Since there would be no one to take any responsibility at that point, it is up to us to take full responsibility for our actions right away. Without any equivocations what so ever, let us begin now.

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