Can you identify a definitive cause for all the problems that humankind has brought to the planet and humankind itself?

Greed and competitiveness

The same thing people talked about since we started writing and communicating. Greed and corruption of power.

The human condition.

Greed, is the number one thing to the down fall of human kind.

Well I see the question is doing great but appreciate the answers.

In the spirit of the answers given so far I say:
Language and technology

Basically my idea is that language is what empowers the human mind and the human.

Technology is the result of that power and the difference in the rate of technological development and natural selection is what inevitably leads to human civilization not being integrated with the natural ecosystem.

I haven’t read up on greed but from my understanding I think it is an effect which comes from power. When you observe animals they have the same desire for status and material gain. They are also just as competitive but they are kept in check by natural forces.

Competitiveness itself is responsible for all of life. Is it not? What is natural selection?

Anyways, was just an idea.

Self-righteous ego and ignorance.

@wearemiracles Language and technology are tools. They can only cause harm when used improperly. So even if language and technology have been instrumental in creating the problems you are thinking about, they are not the ultimate cause of those problems.

@SavoirFaire I think I understand you but what I mean is:

Language is what makes the mind. Without the ability to form concepts with language the we would have very primitive minds like animals. It’s the ability to form ideas and communicate that I think gives humans their power. And from this power comes the ability to subdue our environment to for our use rather than conform to our environment. I’m not sure if my terminology is correct but by technology I mean everything from agriculture to computers and everything in between which makes civilization possible. If you look at earths history from a macro scale it all starts with the human mind which starts with language. Just an idea which I picked up from several other sources in both spiritual teachings and in a certain book which I think is called Sapiens. On this macro scale, all of civilization and technological development seems to happen very rapidly. Life is a kind of thing which has transformed the surface of the Earth but civilization and technology is another kind of artificial infestation which happens out of sync with life and the ecosystem because it doesn’t come from natural selection. It comes from the human mind. So this is the source of the problem in the context of Earth. In the context of humans being their own worst enemy, I think it is also once again the human mind. I believe that the mind of a human inherits a certain kind of complex which we can call the ego. Which can be described as a kind of conceptual self identity. The image we have of ourselves in our minds and I believe (vaguely) that it starts with language and the word “I”, “me” and “mine” and our personal names. This complex is quite sophisticated and causes havoc in both the individual (like myself) and also the collective. It is identity which causes people to want to kill and eradicate other people. It’s identity that makes us feel justified in using other beings as objects for consumption or other people as mules. It’s identity that makes us self righteous (as I often am guilty of). So I think identity in a human gets hijacked by the ego complex and it all is rooted in language.

Just an idea. I’m still trying to understand it.

Self preservation.

If you want to dumb it down to the ultimate goal it is this!

Yes.

It’s my fault.

I was just trying to get free cable.

Sorry.

It’s a ship with nobody steering at the controls. We can blame greed or whatnot but this is the sole reason.

Hyper competitiveness on an individual and tribe level.

The survival instinct. To live, which always, always requires more of something, is what sets us at odds with one another and leads to the drive for every kind of advantage.

The invention of agriculture.

I think a case can be made for the opposite being true. Firstly, as far as war and violence are concerned, Steven Pinker makes a good case for both being in decline in his book, The Better Angels of Our Nature

As far as the damage to the natural world, it is only in recent times that this has even been viewed as a problem. Hopefully, solutions will be found. The world came together to address the problem of climate change, and there is another group that made pledges to preserve biodiversity.

…capitalism.

I agree with @SavoirFaire. You don’t think primitive humans fought, dominated one another, stole from each other, etc before language and technology? Language and technology simply gave them/us more and better ways to fight, dominate, steal, etc. The urges were already there. Look at animals, especially primates.

Constipation. It makes people act differently. It forces them to pay attention to their bodily needs rather than their more ethereal and better selves.

A clean intestine makes for a happier, more productive, better contributing member of society.

@elbanditoroso “that’s a shitty outlook on life !”

@longgone Is on the right track, though China is arguably the biggest culprit. I think it has to do with negative externalities and the Tragedy of the Commons. If I were to run a hazardous waste disposal company and instead of paying money to render the waste inert and harmless, I just dumped it all in @wearemiracles‘s backyard, I’d be facing a pretty steep lawsuit. If instead, I incinerated it and distributed it across everyone’s property, well now I have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

If I take those profits and use a small percent to buy politicians (they’re a small expense at this scale) and I can protect my business interests and even shield myself from liability.

overpopulation, plain and simple.

In a simplified explanation it has to do with the idea that we (humankind) have separated ourselves from nature. When we early humans first started developing technology, it was for protection from certain natural elements (such as weather and predators) as well as to improve hunting and gathering techniques. As time progressed, this technology not only protected from nature, but separated humanity from nature. “Progress”, instead of being a means to improve technologies, became an end unto itself.

How can it be more complicated than that life forms at every level compete for resources?

@Jeruba But other life forms are not destroying the earth so it is more complicated than that. We have enough resources for all humans if we shared them.

@janbb Life has been “destroying the earth” from day one. Geology is full of examples, all the way back to stromatolites.
@Jeruba It’s more complicated with humans because we have the ability to control such things. It’s not overpopulation either, we are not over populated. We are just very poor/immature resource managers.

Life has been “destroying the earth” from day one.

Exactly, it’s just taken time for it to become noticeable. The moment fire was discovered/ invented we began polluting the atmosphere.

The problem is people have put wealth and obtaining it over the expense of other people for years now, don’t expect it to ever change so it will be the end of us one of these days.
My only hope is that I will be long time dead when that time finally gets here.