Sooner Than Expected? The Planet Is Shaking Our Human-Errors Like Water Off a Wet Dog.
The Planet is not in trouble, folks, and anyone who thinks that has too high an opinion of humanity and our influence.
Have we caused this environmental catastrophe we keep on having international meetings about?
Indeed, no doubt about that.
But if you ever watched a labrador retriever come out of the water, you know that neither it nor the planet is in danger of drowning. It shakes itself off, wets everyone within wetting distance, and wags its tail.
What we’re observing in wildfires, record heating of the atmosphere and oceans, tornados, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, droughts, crop failures, disappearing potable water, and increasing human stupidity, is merely Planet Earth shaking off tens of thousands of years of human mistakes.
There were warnings, little doubt about that. But they were all raised by indigenous communities, and we swept them aside like flies at a barbeque. As an example, history tells us indigenous Americans occupied what is now North America, for 12,000 years without disturbing its ecosystem.
If you believe in God, you believe he put us here as an experiment.
There is much made of the ‘human experiment,’ the ‘democratic experiment,’ and other such references, but God holds the title in Games Building. He ran his for quite some time, although the exact period is in dispute between believers and scientists. Now it’s time for the final exam on the results of God’s experiment.
Examination papers have been handed to the creatures of this Earth and pens are at the ready.
Hours later, the buzzer has sounded ,and it’s time to hand in all papers. The planetary room falls silent, as participants leave to await grading and find their place in the Earthly Hierarchy.
In six day’s time, God will reconvene the attendees and announce results.
On the seventh day, He will rest.
On that sixth day, at precisely 2pm, having breakfasted well, God appears at the lectern, gazing across the audience, all eyes turned in his direction.
He clears his throat.
God apologizes for the inconvenience to the human species (purportedly created in his image), but you failed His test and were beaten by hedgehogs and crows—one land based and the other an inhabiter of the sky.
Whales came a close third but, even though God is credited with making them, they are underwater creatures, and his eyesight is in decline.
And yet, the demise of the human species should be an event for human celebration as well, even though we will miss the party, the drinks, and the toasts proclaimed by all creatures great and small.
Problems have been solved. The Paris Accords finally vindicated…although Paris itself will surrender to vegetation.
We humans gave it our best shot.
Einstein, Jefferson, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Ronnie O’Sullivan, and Liberace were simply not enough, even with a Roger Federer and Muhammed Ali thrown in here and there.
The difference is that, although one or two human groups experimented with the idea of balancing humanity’s impact from to time, the natural world just seemed to have more heart and less ego in it.
We, the human species, made the critical error of male dominance.
Even though we humans made a stab at empowering females, we came at it too near the end of the game, and women hadn’t time enough to right our wrongs.
In a horserace the planet will not soon forget, there were simply too many Pete Hegseths cheering the odds-on favorite, Testosterone, down the home stretch. Estrogen gave it a game go, rounding the far turn and closing the gap on the last furlong to the wire, but good breeding simply wasn’t enough to overcome eons of neglect.
Admittedly, it’s a hard blow to the human species.
But concrete, capitalism, a love of war, and greed for what others have, was just too damaging in the long term to boost us ahead of hedgehogs.
Had it merely been crows, we might have had a run at it.
But hedgehogs and crows were a bridge too far.