We are not a cancer to the earth. There is nothing intrinsic in us that drives us to destroy the environment. That much can be seen by the fact that for 99.9% of human history we didn't even have agriculture by which to alter an ecosystem.

The problem with the environment is not so much humans but the way humans are currently interacting with their environment. The reason we are producing and wasting so much is clearly a product of our current economic situation. Under capitalism, it is always beneficial for a corporation to produce more items and try all kinds of psychological tricks (advertising) to try to create a want for those products in the public so they sell as much as possible. With thousands of corporations spending billions and billions of dollars to produce material wants in people, it creates a powerful ideology among the masses that getting more money and more stuff is the be-all and end-all of everything. And this ideology drives capitalism further, encouraging it to produce more for more profit.

As Murray Bookchin put it, "To speak of 'limits to growth' under a capitalistic market economy is as meaningless as to speak of limits of warfare under a warrior society. The moral pieties, that are voiced today by many well-meaning environmentalists, are as naive as the moral pieties of multinationals are manipulative. Capitalism can no more be 'persuaded' to limit growth than a human being can be 'persuaded' to stop breathing. Attempts to 'green' capitalism, to make it 'ecological', are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth."

Capitalism is the problem, not humans. We can live in harmony with the planet and can harmonize our needs with those of the environment, but we can't do it until we abolish capitalism, in which there is no incentive not to grow endlessly to reap endless profits. If we are ever successful in attaining true communism, society will have realized that the purpose of industry is to fulfill the needs and desires of man, not to accumulate maximum profits for an elite few. When making decisions about industry we will be able to take into account that one of those needs is a pleasant and beautiful environment to live in.