Why we should worry about the bloody planet

From "BBC’s Earth: The Power of the Planet" :-

our planet is really tough 

and there is nothing to suggest that it is going to change anytime soon

in the long run, earth can cope with anything we can throw at it 

we could clear all the jungles, but a jungle can regrow over a few thousand years 

we could burn all earths’ fossil fuels, flooding the atmosphere with carbon dioxide 

but even then, it will take the planet only a million years or so for the atmosphere to recover 

even the animals we are wiping out will eventually be replaced by others equally rich in diversity 

as a relentless work of evolution continues 

it’s only a question of time 

the earth will be just fine.

it’s not to say rapid changes we force on earth don’t matter 

that is because humans operate on a different time scale 

we have evolved to life in a world as it is now 

so in changing this world, we are altering the environment that has allowed the human race to thrive 

we could be creating conditions that threaten that long term survival of our civilization

so all this stuff about saving planet earth, well that is not the problem: 

planet earth doesn’t need saving, earth is a great survivor 

it’s not the planet we should be worrying about, it’s us.