[SamPatt]

>Rainforests and biodiversity, deforestation etc are history. Already dead.

No they aren't dead. The world has literally gotten greener in recent decades.

Look up "dematerialization." Because of increased technology and wealth, we're actually starting to use fewer raw resources (both per capita and in absolute terms) and therefore our negative impact on the environment is decreasing now.

You don't often hear of this but the data is pretty clear. "More From Less" by Andrew McAfee has the data.

[esarbe]

McAfee's book primarily cites US numbers, so this represents a kind of cherry-picking. There's a whole lot of earth that's not yet caught up to be able to use less resources.

But no matter if we talk about the US only or about Earth as a whole, biodiversity is way down and the earth is much, much less greener then it was, say, fifty years ago. Much of the 'greening' that has happened are artificial woods (see; China's failing reforestation projects) that suffer from lack of biodiversity, falling prey all kinds of "pests". Like one single fungus killing wast swaths of wood within months.

Our environmental impact is not decreasing. It's still increasing and it will for a long time (until it all comes tumbling down like the house of cards it is).