Amiable Earth

There is a sad irony about what is recently happening to planet Earth. For most of the time that our planet has existed (some 4 ½ billion years), the environment was too harsh for humans to thrive—let alone even survive. Earth has gone through extremely hot or cold periods, has had an atmosphere that was poisonous to us, was once dominated by monstrous critters who would have easily gobbled us up, or was subject to natural disasters such as meteorite or asteroid collisions, earthquakes, or horrendous volcanic blasts.

In the last million years or so the planet has gone through numerous alternating glacial and torrid periods. Finally, in just the last 10,000 years—since humans have settled into a sedentary lifestyle—Earth has calmed down and become a very gentle and benevolent place; much like a Garden of Eden. For our entire written history, that congenial ambience is all we have known. We have had no exposure to the harsh conditions that prevailed for most of Earth’s past. We have been spoiled.

The sad irony is that we humans seem hell-bent on destroying this amiable Earth—and the tragedy is that we are either in denial about it or blissfully ignorant of the extent of our damage. During this last 10,000 year period—just as Earth was becoming congenial—we became the top predator and, in doing so, came into possession of an unimaginable amount of power. Rather than wisely use that power to nurture our planet, we have been foolish; fouling our beautiful nest. In the wink of a geological eye, Earth is turning uncongenial—and this time we are the cause.

The even sadder situation is that we blindly continue our foolishness as conditions worsen. We are playing with a type of fire that is far more powerful than we are. Our shortsightedness and disinterest in the larger reality of our world keep us numb to the consequences.

There is no question that we are steering this beautiful planet into grim times. No one can predict what the future will bring. Conjectures span the range from little change at all (believing that our undeserved comfortableness will somehow continue indefinitely) to the end of the world approaching. I believe that the latter guess is overly extreme. Planet Earth has weathered unimaginably tough conditions in the past—far nastier than we humans could ever bring about. Gaia will survive the next harsh period, and we humans also likely will. Our habitat, however, will become far more unpleasant than we’ve ever experienced. It’s not going to be fun. 

What’s sad is that it needn’t be this way. We needn’t have been so irresponsible.