That’s my point though. That narrative is already in your head because it’s the prevailing belief system. Any criticism of humanity fits neatly into it.
Here are a few things we’ve done really well on IMO that don’t fit with the narrative:
All the nations got together and fixed the ozone layer.
We created the national park system and NWR’s with surprisingly large tracts of land.
Whaling is banned in the USA and many other countries AFAIK.
No more orca shows at sea world after black fish and it seems like we’re moving in the right direction with captive whales and dolphins?
Acid rain is way better. (That was a huge deal in the 80s)
We’re getting close to completely getting off coal as a power source (in the US)
A large portion of new power capacity is renewable.
Recycling looks like it doesn’t actually work well but it’s amazing that almost every household does it in an effort to help.
> That narrative is already in your head because it’s the prevailing belief system.
My point is it's not a belief system, it's history. Those things I mentioned really happened and continue to happen, eh? E.g. the Aral Sea really did vanish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_sea
Most of your examples serve my point better than yours, it seems to me:
> fixed the ozone layer
We literally poisoned the sky.
> Whaling is banned
After we nearly hunted them to extinction.
> black fish
We imprisoned and tortured some whales for entertainment. We do that less now.
> Acid rain
We poisoned the sky another way.
> coal
We poisoned the sky a third way. We do that less now.
> A large portion of new power capacity is renewable.
Yes, but a generation or two too late to prevent global warming due to a couple of additional ways we poisoned the sky.
> national park system and NWR
Okay, I'll give you that one. We're not actually orcs, we just act like it when we're not paying attention.
(In re: space, I'm pro-spaceflight, so I won't mention how much poison each rocket launch dumps into the sky.)
- - - -
If you want to point to an example of humans improving an area we could talk about the Loess Plateau which was destroyed and then revived:
> The plateau was highly fertile and easy to farm in ancient times, which contributed to the development of early Chinese civilization around the Loess Plateau, but centuries of overgrazing, subsistence farming, deforestation for fuel wood gathering and cultivation of crops on slopes, exacerbated by China's population increase, have resulted in degenerated ecosystems, desertification, and poor local economies.
> To reverse this trend, the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project was launched in 1994 to rehabilitate the land and improve the people's livelihoods. The project guided the people living on the plateau to change animal husbandry practices; encouraged natural regeneration of grasslands, tree and shrub cover on slope-lands previously used for farming; and land restoration through terracing and replanting. These efforts allowed the perennial vegetation cover to increase from 17 to 34 percent, and "[e]ven in the lifetime of the project, the ecological balance was restored in a vast area considered by many to be beyond help"; in addition, more than 2.5 million people were lifted out of poverty by doubled incomes.
> Restoration has occurred over an area of about 35,000 square kilometers (about 5% of the plateau's total area).
> it’s amazing that almost every household does it in an effort to help.
I agree, FWIW, my personal narrative is that humans are nature-accelerators and not intrinsically evil (no "original sin" in other words), we just haven't been paying attention.
Here are a few things we’ve done really well on IMO that don’t fit with the narrative:
All the nations got together and fixed the ozone layer.
We created the national park system and NWR’s with surprisingly large tracts of land.
Whaling is banned in the USA and many other countries AFAIK.
No more orca shows at sea world after black fish and it seems like we’re moving in the right direction with captive whales and dolphins?
Acid rain is way better. (That was a huge deal in the 80s)
We’re getting close to completely getting off coal as a power source (in the US)
A large portion of new power capacity is renewable.
Recycling looks like it doesn’t actually work well but it’s amazing that almost every household does it in an effort to help.