"The price of thunder"

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The story consists of the destruction of the earth, the price to pay for centuries of abusing what few resources are available to us, each other, and all other species. In a sense a quest for what the drive has been for so long, what is it that has made us so feverish with the idea that we must build and expand and "grow" no matter what the cost, even if it's the cost of our very own existence?