I recently read Jan Zalasiewicz’s The Earth After Us.

A very enjoyable book, a kind of Sci-Fisque frame story about paleontology (including paleontology done by future aliens visiting Earth) and the effects of the antrhopocene. At times he cannot contain his sarcasm, like in this pearl:

“The manner of the disappearance must spark equal controversy among
our future scientists. Did this remarkable species have the utter bad luck
to make its evolutionary appearance just as a major climatic and environmental reorganization of the planet was beginning, and perish in the upheavals?
Or did it combine high intelligence with breathtaking stupidity in
equal measure: to be able to dominate the environment on the one hand
and create a technologically sophisticated empire, but simultaneously to
dismantle the systems that kept the Earth’s surface stable and habitable?”

I agree with the comments of “genox”. The dynamics of our global system are of so large scale that they have terrible inertia, thus I have long ago stopped whining about “why somebody doesn’t do something”. Well, because all humans have vested interest in this: their own life, and the lives of their dearest. So who can control us then? I think Pasteur got it: “the microbes will have the last word!”. Just keep eye on: http://www.who.int/csr/don/en/ and growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

PS. For long-term storage of lot’s of text and images engraved on nickel plates, check HD-Rosetta. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD-Rosetta )