Artful Dodger:

Don't you think the "immediate" environment is part of the planet too? When CO2 is released, where does it go? Outer space? Into a cave? We have removed 2/3 of the world's forests, that means 66% less CO2 consumption by plants. At the same time we have pumped tons and tons of CO2 that was trapped in fossil fuels. It took nature millions of years to transform that CO2 into hydrocarbons. We have changed the balance literally overnight.

We look at the problem from a purely consumerist point of view. We want to keep consuming fossil fuels, plastics, consumer products, etc. The pollution that comes in the process is going somewhere, and it is not outside this planet. What you call "immediate" environment is the planet itself. All it comes down to is the fact that the middle class wants to consume and not feel guilty about it. So we make excuses. Scientists are wrong (now, there is something really, really new in history) so let's keep the status quo. Let's drill some more, release a bit here and there. In 300 years, it will be somebody else's problem. We will be dead by then, so the resposibility is not ours anyway.