We are responsible for great changes on this planet, much to the detriment of the rest of nature in our benefit.
Then again, we are part of it. Not necessarily voluntary participants, and wired with very strong instinct to want to keep on living and keep the cycles going.
Except we’re less of a part of it because of medical intervention. I, for one, was born with a fatal hernia and only modern surgery & medicine could have saved me, or at least I would guess the odds were against me without our science and technological advance. I would have been selected out.
We’re certainly responsible to each other, though responsibility is, as far as I can tell, taken and respect returned for reliably responsible people. We have reputation and a sense of moral right and wrong and there’s very little to doubt that this was evolutionarily beneficial, only our civilization has taken over to this great extent (that we know of) because of cooperation, like the mysterious power of deeds, titles, a social contract and governments which enforce them but also charities, philanthropy, and general altruism.
Are we responsible for the failures to manage climate change? Probably, but maybe we should focus on a very difficult problem in the immediate future instead:
Since we modeled for infinite growth & specialized verticals with relatively fragile input supply chains, when we spiral out of a working society, say because of climate change, how do you stay alive then? It won’t matter to me then what my carbon footprint is, I’ll be scrambling to stay fed.
There’s a piece of paper in front of me, a legal pad I keep for work/todo notes, whatever. My second to latest note is very simple:
Solve problems like your life depends on it
because it does.