Do we care enough to do somethIng?
I care. You care. There are a lot of us out there who care and understand that we have to care about EVERYONE, the environment, the vulnerable, animals. AND I think, even as there are so many signs that we are on the verge of going over, we're growing in number. I look at the mobilization of the millenials and the growing reaction against Trump's dismantling of federal protections (environment including our national parks and American Indian Sacred sites etc), how Al Sharpton, off all people, has extended an olive branch to the Jewish community and there's been reciprocation, that Jews and Muslims and Christians that are not extremists come together to protest hate and so many signs of people who get it. I think we're mobilizing against the haters: aryan race terrorism, fundamentalism of any kind, calling out Farakhan and questioning why the women's movement warped into representation for women haters, too. I think there's a growing consciousness that's pretty impressive: going forward has to be about putting biases aside. I'm hopeful, anyway. And I think there's a place for nonbelievers going forward. We're a growing number
Yes, there is a lot to be optimistic about even in today's world, it just requires more effort to pay attention to it. This does not mean I'm not deeply concerned about all sorts of very plausible terrible consequences of various actions that, say, Trump might take (or fail to take) on any given day, but we must constantly remind ourselves that natural selection has wired us to pay intense attention to threats and to ignore hopeful and positive things as irrelevant to survival.
Great Memes! I think that younger generations will be more apt to take action. They already show less tendency towards religion, separation of races, and are encouraged to do more to help the needy; at least in our community. Hopefully this will make them more apt to work together and find more common ground. And to see the need to put the Earth first.
We need to get away from the worship of money and material things.
Seems not. This question has been asked to every generation. This country seems to have a "two minute" attention span when it comes to issues.