It's unlikely, in my view, that optimism and hope will overcome greed and selfishness to avert sustained damage to planet Earth.

Most of the world is still mired in corruption and poverty.

The majority of the people on the planet dislike or even hate others who do not agree with their world views.

Populism and nationalism and various forms of racism and extremism are predictably on the rise globally.

These are all symptoms of a world which is in social and economic decline (economic decline for the majority on the planet, not the few wealthy at the "top").

In a world which is in social and economic decline, the wealth is consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer people, and the poor are exploited by the rich, and the rich are mostly interested in getting richer. The poor become poorer and the social-economic class struggles continue.

Under these realistic circumstances, it seems like a fantasy to me to believe that the terrible effects of pollution, and the rise of misinformation, populism, racism and nationalism are going to change humankind so they will "rise up and save the world" from the disastrous effects of climate change and the politics of racism, hatred and division.

I hope I am wrong; but if I had to bet large money on the outcome and could live long enough to see the results of the wager, the odds seems overwhelming in favor of a dystopian future for Planet Earth.

Honestly, this is "real life" and not a movie where at the end some hero or small group of superheroes are going to fly in and save the planet against all odds. This is not "Avengers End Game" or a Star Wars movie. This is real life with real pollution, industrial waste, greed, selfishness, corruption, materialism, consumerism, nationalism, racism, misinformation, disinformation and all the other things which are like a cancer eating away at our world.