George Carlin probably said it best, but letter-writer Patrick Cowan makes the same point in the following:
The Earth does not need saving. And the human race is its least qualified saviour
Andrea Mandel-Campbell writes: “Opting out of the climate crisis clearly is not an option. We need to get ready for the next revolution in the fight to save the planet: protecting and restoring what is left of our natural world.”
Our planet has survived long periods during which its atmosphere and oceans lacked oxygen. It has endured ice ages and periods of extreme heat, neither of which human beings could have survived. A meteorite struck what is now the Yucatan Peninsula and exterminated most dinosaurs without knocking Earth off its stride.
Trust me: 1. Earth does not need saving. 2. If it did, human beings would be among its least qualified saviours. 3. Earth is not “our” planet. If anything, we belong to the Earth, which can and likely will dispose of us quite unceremoniously one day. 4. Human beings have to be among Earth’s most arrogant inhabitants and eco-warriors number among the most arrogant human beings.
I love that "earthling" includes every thing that lives; that a banana is 50% genetically equal to a human; that all religion is an ego problem because we cannot believe that anything as "special" as us could possibly not live forever.
ReplyDeleteWe have no more insight or vision than a bacteria in a petri dish that will eat itself out of existence.
In the same light our power and influence might be highly over-rated.
Recent images from the James Webb Telescope remind us of the minuscule place in the universe we occupy, lunta. If we could bring that humbling perspective to our daily existence, things might be better.
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