JaggedEdge....Bombdig said it well--lightning has been causing forest fires for millenia and will continue to do so, providing, as you say, a healthy balance. Some dumbshit tossing his cigarette into dry leaves may be a little less natural and a little more harmful. I see the point you're trying to make, that deforestation and natural disasters are healthy and natural....true, when they are indeed natural or with, as in the native American example, the best interests of the forests at heart, or in moderation. The body needs fat, but I wouldn't recommend eating a stick of butter daily.

Your assertion that most people love and care about nature is both true and untrue. It is true in the sense that if you asked most people about nature they'd get a wistful look in their eye. If given the choice between the rabid consumption of cheap goods that hurt the environment, and something more costly or more inconvenient that is green, your average philistine will choose the former. And I very much doubt CEOs ponder the environmental consequences when they make a lucrative decision.

To be honest, I really do not care one way or the other whether our current activities are causing massive climate change. Either way, we could do to treat the earth with more respect, and the whole argument is basically irrelevent. Let's say it is, as you say, a political lie....so? Does that mean have fun, pollute? Common sense (which, as Voltaire tells us, is not so common) tells me that being nice to the earth is a good idea. Even if climate change isn't an issue (though I still believe it is--I don't have the evidence on hand, but I have read it), our current practices bode ill for the future, considering how we have limited resources and habitats for our species. Your argument on human-caused climate change may indeed have some merit to it, but your argument that we are not harming the planet is ridiculous. If you're all about the evidence, I'm sure a little research (and not from everything'sfineit'sallaconspiracy.org), will yield some disturbing results. So, this is a non-issue.