Arrogance...We are fools to think we have that much influence on how this world works, one way or the other. At best, we only have a modest impact on our own existence.

We think far too highly of ourselves. Mother Nature hiccups, and we all buy the farm. Whether plastic bags take a year or a hundred or even a thousand to decompose, what difference will that make in the long run? If we ran out of oil tomorrow, how would that make any difference to how humanity will funtion 500 years from now? Any of these might be a temporary setback for us now, but the eventuality is that none of these things will make any difference over the long run, except maybe to force us to develop technologies a little bit faster to deal with the inconveniences.

Economics isn't really a natural science, any more than politics is.