We never developed an adequate cultural response to dealing with technology.

We climb up on the tiger's back because we can see the benefits of new technologies. But once you start that ride, stability goes out the window and you are probably going to get eaten in the end.

In the 1920's we discover plastic and immediately start making stuff out of it. Not one thought about long term consequences.

Last year I read that the weight of all the plastic we have made is now equal to the weight of the planetary biosphere. That's why plastic nano particulates are in your water, food, and air.

We have zero cultural defenses against technology. The cultural immune system that we tried to create, the EPA, has been degraded to the point of almost uselessness.

We have been doing a lot of massive experiments on the planet in the last few hundred years.