Don't save the planet!

There! Got your attention. :-)

I was watching a low-budget film on the Sci-Fi channel the other day. It was about some scientist who's attempts to save the world from global warming had led to the creation of an invention that had gone astray. Typical sci-fi disaster film (but without the 300 foot monster).

In the midst of this terror, many people had been trapped in a lab with the scientist and only he had the code to let them out. In his despair over not being able to save the planet because of the device failure, he was putting the rest of the occupants of the building at risk as the lab collapsed around them. One of the scientists pleaded with him to "wake up" and help them escape. In trying to convince him to help, she
commented a fatal flaw in his pursuit -- that he thought he was trying to save the planet. The planet doesn't need to be saved. It will be here millions of years after we all die. What he was really trying to do was save the people (or "inhabitants" to rightfully include the "flora and fauna" as well). Thus, he could still save people of the Earth by helping them escape the building was her logic.

That got me thinking about all of the other "green" initiatives that are so prevalent in the media now days. They all talk about "saving the planet." The planet is a big rock floating through space. Hundreds, if not thousands of others just like it exist in the universe (plus or minus intelligent life). Why should we care about this one. Um... 'cuz we live here!

How much more personal, and effective, would those campaigns be if they asked for assistance in saving someone's life -- your mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, grandson, grand daughter, great-grandkids, etc...

I wonder...