Perhaps a good related question you could ask is why do we need agriculture? After all, we can go down to the store and get a gallon of milk and loaf of bread whenever we need it. Now, you said it yourself-you are no scientist. What laypeople tend to do (and I am one) is try to reduce each issue to its lowest common denominator so we can get our heads around it, make a decision, and move on to the next big thing. We're busy, things going on, got to get to work and so on.

But this doesn't work so well when it comes down to many complex issues, and environment is one of them. True, some of us benefit from climate controlled living environments and do not rely on many individual animals for food since we grow our own-and often in confinement so we really don't need a lot of space outdoors-but environment is far more than what we see in zoos or something we can adjust with a thermostat. First consider the billions of people who are exposed to the elements and dependent on subsistence agriculture far more than we are. One alternative to a hospitable environment would be for each of us to take in seven roommates. Another would be to build McDonalds outlets and give them gift cards. You can see that the premise you are asking about quickly becomes ridiculous on very basic points. Of course, aside from agriculture, which relies on a well-balanced and somewhat delicate ecosystem, there is the far more basic matter of potable water. These examples only begin to touch on the reasons environment is indeed really that important. Mankind can indeed overcome many obstacles with technology, but it takes time to adapt and build the infrastructure; rapid and accelerating climate change makes that more challenging. It pays to have more foresight than we have had in the past, and as climate science matures it will play an ever more important role in that and the development of technology to adapt a large and growing population to the inevitable changes, whatever their causes. The state of our global environment is incredibly important.

Let's assume that we don't, fundamentally, care at all what happens to any part of the world that humans aren't directly using.

What happens in "nature" should still matter to you, because it affects the parts of the Earth that humans use.

Weather affects the crops we grow for food. No crops, no food. Bad crops, less food.

The movements, behaviors, ranges, etc of the animals and other organisms that interact with our crops also affect them. If our pollinators die? Our crops won't be pollinated, and won't grow as well (or sometimes at all). If the things that eat our crops, or cause our crops to rot, or the weeds that grow in the same fields as our crops, are doing unusually well? We will have much worse crops.

And even if all that happens is that we can grow the same amount of crops, but in different places, that still means we have to move all the *infrastructure*. We need roads and train routes in different places, to haul the crops to market. People who own now-useless agricultural land will be screwed over, and people will have to move, retrain, and so forth to grow the new crops in the new places.

And there are some types of food, such as fish, that we get primarily by, well, taking it directly out of nature. There are some farmed fish, but the vast majority of the fish we eat are from, well, people taking them out of nature. If the fish stocks die out, that's a lot less food available for us.

And it's not just food that we get from the environment. Water that runs through a healthy river system set in a healthy forest or the like generally needs much less treatment before we can drink it than water that runs through a degraded environment. Treating water costs money. Coral reefs, mangrove swamps, and the like can be natural barriers that will, in essence, absorb much of the brunt of coastal storms, leaving less damage to man-made structures. And so on.

And that's not even mentioning the effects of things like sea level rise.

Just understand you live in an ecosystem that exists on a planet that exists in a solar system that exists in a galaxy, galaxy cluster, universe, and so on. Everything is interconnected so what happens in any of these places will effect humans in some way or another. Miniscule effect or catastrophic effect.

You as a human being only have control over what happens in your local ecosystem and to a far lesser degree to the planet. All you can do is be RESPONSIBLE and RESPECTFUL of the environment around you. Nurture it and it will nurture you. Western society does not adopt that philosophy but ancient cultures did. Hopefully the west changes its attitude to how humans relate with the environment. Your food, air, water, temperature, resources are fundamental to your survival and nature will fail to produce a sustainable supply unless it is not nurtured and managed in a sustainable manner. So do what you can that is in your control. And that includes advocating change to sustaining the environment outside your local ecosystem.

Absolutely nothing humans achieve will ever master nature. That is the big problem with modern western culture. Humans are the humble offspring of the planet/universe and need to understand it to live within it in a harmonious way. Otherwise we go extinct.

We have not yet figured out how to live indefinitely without nature - i.e. to grow our own food and create our own air and water in a sealed box like a space station or moonbase or sealed habitat. So right now, yes, we need the environment even if you don't care about pandas and tigers (or slugs and scorpions). If we change it too much too quickly, we will lose food species and commercially important forests, and have to re-tool our agriculture just to keep feeding ourselves.

YES, but nothing has interupted earth's environment in millions of years, because all non solids, like exhaust, co2, smoke, gases, etc. that rise into the upper atmosphere separate into nothingness by nature so the suns rays can warm earth as it rotates to grow plants that give oxygen and food so all species can survive. Mike

Yes. Because that's where life starts. It's pretty important.

Well the environment is very important, but I get you are thinking of only global warming or climate change. It is important as well but there are currently no effective solutions to improve the situation. Many oppose cap and trade or carbon taxes as ineffective potential solutions.

Yes

The world is really a big spaceship. The environment is our life support system. If we mess up the life support system there is no life. The dying will take a fair while but it will not be pretty.

Yes

Every single step counts. If we dont take it seriously now, It may become horrible for future generations. Since, what we consider slightest changes in global warming etc, may become extremely terrible in future.

Yes environment is our life line to be on earth,

YES. Do you want to kill the animals and destroy the beautiful land we live on?

You, me and all living things depend on the environment. If it degrades too much, things will die. Including humans.

it's scares me that anyone thinks like you

a new dark age has begun

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/watch...

Silly boy

It was only 2c lower during the last ice age, if the earth cools or warms just a tiny fraction it has a catastrophic effect, you might not even feel it where you are but in a lot of places it is being felt.