Human Impact on the Planet

This is a very broad topic, but after being in this class for as long as I have been, I think I have a pretty strong opinion on it.  I really only know my own impact and the impact of those around me, so within that small population, I am of course generalizing.  That being said, I think we are having a horrendous negative impact on our planet, and that if we continue to behave in the manner in which we are, our planet will be destroyed quickly and there will be nothing positive left for our great-grandchildren and their grandchildren.  So this is what I know about my small population's negative impact: nobody that I am close with recycles anything, nobody I know closely invests in energy efficient appliances or vehicles,  nobody I know drives a hybrid, nobody I know walks or rides a bike to work/school, nobody I know tries to eat organically or grow their own food, nobody I know tries to reduce their consumption of water and/or electricity.  I can say these things with complete honesty, because I sat and tried to think of even one person that I am close with that might do any of these things, and I couldn't come up with anyone, including myself!  We have no real consideration for our environment or the population of wildlife, to be honest, we don't even think about it on a daily basis!  You know what we think about regularly? What we are going to take out to dinner, without thinking about the dwindling fish population; we think about what handbag we want to purchase next, without thinking about how it got here from Italy; we think about how we're going to afford that Ford F-150, without thinking about how much gas we are going to have to buy to fuel that truck.  We are a consumerist society and it is going to take a long amount of time and a ton of effort to try and change that!  Until we make the environment a top priority and start treating our planet with the respect it deserves, I don't think anything will change.