I guess in a nutshell I'm trying to say that if we frame the story as "hopeless" then we'll never find the motivation to make the big changes that HAVE to happen.

But if we consider the resiliance of the planet as a whole, then even if we're in deep kimchi right now (which we definitely are) maybe we'll be able to muster and at least make something of it to survive as part of the larger whole being called Gaia.

Or to paraphrase a famous quote - if we think we can't or we think we can - we're going to be right.