An Earth Day thought:
It is arrogant to think human activities can destroy the
planet, or even impose any permanent damage.
We are certainly capable of making temporary changes to the
thin, rather fragile layer we call the biosphere. We are affecting the climate in ways we will
not enjoy – but nothing like a collision with a city-sized meteorite - the
effects of which the Earth has survived repeatedly.
Our efforts may make the planet unliveable for ourselves,
and most of our large land-dwelling peers, but time heals all – and the Earth
has existed since time out of mind, and likely has as much time ahead as behind
in which to recover. Evolution is utterly indifferent as to its
direction; in another 20-30 million years—not even a blink in geological time—it
, it will not matter whether we conserved, and stewarded our biosphere during
our brief sojourn, or greedily used up all we could acquire; poisoning
everything we touched. Whatever species
then is dominant will likely be unaware that we ever existed – and if aware may
view us with a combination of indifference, or gratitude for the mutations we
triggered that made their dominace possible.
It’s not the Earth we are capable of destroying – it is
ourselves.
Happy Earth Day!
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