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Sorry for my poor English. Me and google translator are doing our best to translate my question properly.

My story evolve around sentient planets. Let’s imagine every Planet in my universe is sentient. With every planet that comes to existence, there are living beings that arise with them. They have some kind of connection with the planet. They feel when the planet is in pain. They feel the planets feelings. When the Planet dies, they also die.

The Story takes place on Earth. Nature, Humanity and Creatures are pretty much like in our reality. Like in our reality, humanity destroys nature and pollutes the environment. The living beings, that are older than any other being on earth, feel that earth is in deep pain due to the actions of humanity. They feel that the planet is dying.

Why can´t they just wipe out humanity from the surface of the planet?

For my story, it is crucial, that they can´t harm any living being on the surface of the planet. For example, they could manipulate aircraft parts that leads to a plane crash and kills every human on board. However, they could not harm humans directly or wipe out the entire species, even if they had the power to do so.

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    $\begingroup$ Sorry, this sounds like a problem of your story, not about the rules of your world. As such it doesn't seem suited for this community. Check the help center for more info. $\endgroup$
    – L.Dutch
    Dec 3, 2019 at 10:17
  • $\begingroup$ Who says they can't wipe humankind? Also, your statements are kind of contradictory. They can't harm living beings but they can purposely provoke events that harm living beings? $\endgroup$
    – IloneSP
    Dec 3, 2019 at 10:35
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    $\begingroup$ @Roberto I don't see a contradiction there. It just means they can't harm humans directly. Think Death from the Final Destination movies - he can't kill the survivors directly, so instead he has to engineer elaborate (and usually fatal) accidents. $\endgroup$
    – F1Krazy
    Dec 3, 2019 at 10:58
  • $\begingroup$ I believe that some of your facts are wrong. First off, humanity does not destroy the environment!!! While yes, we do use fossil fuels, and they do produce greenhouse gasses, global warming and climate change are a myth; the global average temperature is only ~0.5 degrees warmer than it was in 1850. Second, your general concept has already been used by Piers Anthony in his Xanth series, albeit without the xenocidal overtones. $\endgroup$ Dec 3, 2019 at 16:40

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Because "living beings, that are older than any other being on earth" is pretty long, I will just call them "elders".

Do you have an idea, what the elders actually are? Are they physical or are they some kind of spirit? Where do they live (in the oceans, on land, on mountains, inside the earth etc.)? Do they have any restrictions, for example they die in direct sunlight or they die when breathing normal air? Do they need anything that only humans can produce?

Some ideas:

  • When they wipe out humans, they will also die. For example, when they get humans to fight a nuclear war, then no humans will survive, but they will also be bombed to death. Or maybe they need something that only humans can give them. Maybe they dig into graves of humans to extract some enzymes or something they only find in humans.
  • They are not physical. They can only produce electromagnetic pulses, that may lead to some plane crashes, but won't wipe humans from earths surface.
  • They are super slow. Since they are really huge, a human year feels like a day for them. They can conjure up heavy storms (like you can blow away a fly that lands on your hand), but things that could wipe out humans need so long, that humans can easily react
  • They live in the oceans. They can't breathe air or move around on land, so they would be an easy target for humans. Maybe they can't reproduce, so they can't afford to lose an elder.
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Politics and bureaucracy

They’ve got some odd political power plays going on. As a result of this some things are expressly forbidden and others expressly required. This makes killing off humanity without breaking any of the rules... tricky.

Think of it like this: a patient has a disease that might kill them. The drugs to kill off the disease exist, but thanks to lobbying from a rival pharmaceutical company (who want to increase their own power) it is included in a category of drugs that can’t be used. That rival has another drug that kills the disease indirectly by destroying the cells the disease is in. It’s much less pleasant for the patient, it’s more complex and takes longer to work, but it’s the only option the patient has got because the good drugs are illegal.

Because politics.

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Because they would kill (or strongly affect) a part of yourself. With their ability to feel such a things (beyond the perception of humankind) as the planet emotions, they also are affected with such a brutal act as killing other living being and no one is willing to undergo that.

PS: is this Cameron's Avatar? :)

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Morality

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. It's morally wrong to kill humanity to save the planet. Furthermore, not all humans are evil. A lot of humans care about the environment and do their part in keeping the planet healthy.

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  • $\begingroup$ On your second point, only insane people actually want to hurt the environment. Also, most things that are being marketed as being "good" for the environment are actually REALLY bad. For example, take solar panels. While yes, they do provide energy without using "polluting" fossil fuels, they chemicals that go into solar panels are actually much more polluting to mine, refine, and use than just using fossil fuels. $\endgroup$ Dec 3, 2019 at 16:34