NOTE: The following is purely opinion, and is offered only for a bit of wry perspective on our world.
Imagine that you were born fabulously wealthy. As an infant you had no idea that there was a great treasure at your disposal, and relied upon others to provide for your every need. As you grew, you began to hear mentions of the wonderful inheritance that was yours, a thing of fabulous value, and wondered about what it could be. You only knew that one day it would be yours.
Always you were blessed with a delicious variety of foods, and provided with a comfortable home, and education. The years flew by, and you were provided with a great variety of wonderful gifts that you took largely for granted: a magic vehicle that carried you effortlessly to faraway places while you rested in comfort, without need to walk; devices that allowed you to see events occurring far away, and others that allowed you to speak with friends and family across vast distances. Yet still you wondered, what was the great inheritance that awaited you, and when would it actually be bestowed upon you?
Eventually you became an adult, perhaps married and raised a family of your own, and built a life for yourself. Yet you always wondered, what was the great treasure that you would eventually receive?
Eventually, through the long days of your life, you began to appreciate the simpler pleasures of life: the warmth of a summer night, the stars that shone above, the sound of waves lapping the shore, the sight of leaves quivering at the touch of the breeze.
Ultimately, you also perceived the dangers that threatened you and the things you held dear, things that threatened the your future, that of your children, and the wonderful world that you shared. Pollution that endangered your health and the wonderful nature of your world.
Then it dawned on you: this was your great inheritance, the thing of fabulous value that you were promised as a child. This magnificent world, this green planet, this blue water, this clear expanse of sky. And then, when you thought about your treasure a bit more, you began to become just a bit angry, knowing how your inheritance, and that of your children, had been abused. You resolved to take a stand, to take up a sacred task, and begin to work, to fight if necessary, for the things you love.
Today your inheritance and mine is under the most extreme threat imaginable. The 'minor' impact of a virtual plague of nearly seven billion humans burning wood, coal, oil, and gas, not to mention plastics, chemicals, and other substances, is both warming the planet directly, and building a layer of ultra-violet-absorbing gases in our atmosphere that keep the excess heat from radiating away.
Now we have begun to melt the permafrost and warm the oceans, initiating the release of trillions of tons of frozen methane, which will cause the Earth's temperature to rise beyond survivable levels. If this process is not stopped, humans and the vast majority of other species on the planet are doomed to extinction, or conditions under which extinction might seem preferable.
Despite the obvious facts and the simple science of our situation, we are completely hobbled, at least in the United States, by a small number of lobbyists pedaling dis-information so that their sponsors, mostly dirty-energy and chemical companies, can continue to make obscene profits for a few more years before they collapse and die along with everything else we love.
The most amazing part of this situation is that humans are considered an intelligent species, and yet have laid, and sprung, a trap for themselves that virtually guarantees a very short future.