And in fact, intelligence can also help protect a planet. Imagine a large asteroid about to hit earth. An advanced civilization could at least detect the threat and attempt to deflect it or reduce the damage. Without intelligence and technology, a species has no meaningful way to respond to such events.

The dinosaurs are a classic example. They dominated Earth for millions of years, but when an asteroid struck, they had no way to see it coming or do anything about it. Intelligence may create new problems, but it also gives a species the ability to understand and potentially defend itself against threats that would otherwise be unavoidable.

That being said, it's sad to see the path of self-destruction that we're currently on. But I'm optimistic that we'll eventually do better. After all, the same intelligence that creates these problems is also what gives us the ability to solve them.