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Imho the whole history around TEL [0] is a pretty sad example of human hubris and our tendency to underestimate the negative impacts of our actions.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraethyllead#Controversy_and...

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Less about human hubris and more about the single drive to maximise profit to the detriment of any other considerations. My favourite part:

By 2000, the TEL industry had moved the major portion of their sales to developing countries whose governments they lobbied against phasing out leaded gasoline.

Monsters.

It is always weird to me how people refer to these people as monsters, but do very little to stop their actions, and seem to actively support them if it makes their life even slightly easier. Classifying the people who make these decisions as monsters is stupid, because it somwhow makes them seem outliers from the average human moral conduct. They aren't outliers. That is just simply how most humans are or become when they are given a large amount of power.

If we want real change we are going to have to realize that 99.9% of humans are lazy, selfish, and err on the side of evil.

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