Imagine for a moment that every human on the planet was suddenly whisked away...
SuzannePjam
Posts: 411
A healthy planet makes for a better you
Mark Morford
Friday, October 20, 2006
Of course you already know. Of course you can merely look out the window and see the traffic and the plastic and the smog and the bad haircuts and the war and the Paris Hilton and the Bush and say, well duh.
But imagine the result anyway. Imagine for a moment that every human on the planet was suddenly whisked away to the divine gurgling ether in one big blast of cheery Armageddon nothingness, all the Bible-waving true believers carted off to a giant sex-free harp-filled cosmic Wal-Mart while the rest of us leap to the next luminous transformational echelon of timespacelove.
How would the planet respond if all bipeds disappeared tomorrow?
You can probably guess. Almost immediately, the planet would shudder, shift, align itself anew. Immediately, all endangered species would begin to recover. Light pollution (that is, pollution caused by industrial light) would soon vanish, followed by a great reduction in air pollution, methane and chemicals in fresh water. Soon, all bridges and dams would collapse, roads would become overgrown, buildings would decay, corals would regenerate, most organic landfill would decay and vanish. And that's just the beginning.
In other words, as the fascinating/depressing cover story in a recent issue of New Scientist points out, the Earth would quickly begin to recover mightily from the deep disease that is human existence. What's more, the planet would, by every estimate, quickly become a whole lot healthier, more balanced and back in harmony with itself.
Translation: We have wreaked a horrific amount of damage and done just about zero good for the place while we've been here. It is, obviously, not the most heartwarming thing to accept.
Perhaps the good news is, with the exception of some nuclear remains, were our species to vanish entirely, most traces of humanity's existence would wink out within about 50,000 years, and almost all traces within 200,000. Not bad at all, considering the extent of our damage. Pretty much a blip on the geologic timescale, really. Don't you feel better?
Humans are the single most dominant and destructive species in planetary history. But sentient humans have been around for what, a million years? The Earth has been here for roughly 4.5 billion. No matter how you slice it, the Earth still sees us as just another fly in its bedroom. Isn't that reassuring?
There are two ways to react to such a viewpoint: One is to say, "Oh my God, what the hell is wrong with us and just look at how much damage we've wrought."
Option 2 is to ask: "Who the hell cares? If all our remains vanish in a couple of hundred thousand years, does it really matter how much damage we inflict? After all, there's no way to say whether or not the planet really gives a damn one way or the other about our species. Hell, we could nuke the whole place tomorrow and the planet would merely shudder and shrug and pause for a few million years and start all over. Right?"
Millions of humans, if they think of it at all, view the Earth as merely a giant sandbox, a mute playground to be trammeled and paved over and drilled into and burned through and sliced up like so much ecological pie.
I have friends who don't exercise. I know plenty of people who still smoke and drink a ton of beer and get stoned frequently and eat gallons of processed foods and watch TV as if it was pixelated cake, and the last time they truly got their hearts pumping was when they had to walk five blocks from their house to the sushi joint because their car broke down.
They just laugh. "What's the point of eating right and exercising?" they say. Why the hell spend all that money on yoga and gyms and vitamins and try to take excessive care of the body when we're all just gonna break down and die anyway?
It is the cutest viewpoint, like, ever. The initial reply is almost too obvious to explain: The point of a healthy lifestyle is not to live longer. It is to live better, right now, in the moment, to breathe deeper and dream more lucidly and step lighter and orgasm stronger and be able to touch your toes and touch your lover's toes and try to evolve, just a little, while we're here.
Maybe the planet is no different. Maybe we should take care of it because it makes our lives better and our orgasms stronger and the trees look at us without cringing and begging for a divorce. You think?
But truly, the Earth may not really care. If we abuse her to death, she might merely shake us off like a bad rash, a nasty head cold, a giant whining bipedal kidney stone. After all, despite all our whining and stomping, we really ain't all that.
But your soul. Your soul cares. But you knew that already. Right?
Mark Morford
Friday, October 20, 2006
Of course you already know. Of course you can merely look out the window and see the traffic and the plastic and the smog and the bad haircuts and the war and the Paris Hilton and the Bush and say, well duh.
But imagine the result anyway. Imagine for a moment that every human on the planet was suddenly whisked away to the divine gurgling ether in one big blast of cheery Armageddon nothingness, all the Bible-waving true believers carted off to a giant sex-free harp-filled cosmic Wal-Mart while the rest of us leap to the next luminous transformational echelon of timespacelove.
How would the planet respond if all bipeds disappeared tomorrow?
You can probably guess. Almost immediately, the planet would shudder, shift, align itself anew. Immediately, all endangered species would begin to recover. Light pollution (that is, pollution caused by industrial light) would soon vanish, followed by a great reduction in air pollution, methane and chemicals in fresh water. Soon, all bridges and dams would collapse, roads would become overgrown, buildings would decay, corals would regenerate, most organic landfill would decay and vanish. And that's just the beginning.
In other words, as the fascinating/depressing cover story in a recent issue of New Scientist points out, the Earth would quickly begin to recover mightily from the deep disease that is human existence. What's more, the planet would, by every estimate, quickly become a whole lot healthier, more balanced and back in harmony with itself.
Translation: We have wreaked a horrific amount of damage and done just about zero good for the place while we've been here. It is, obviously, not the most heartwarming thing to accept.
Perhaps the good news is, with the exception of some nuclear remains, were our species to vanish entirely, most traces of humanity's existence would wink out within about 50,000 years, and almost all traces within 200,000. Not bad at all, considering the extent of our damage. Pretty much a blip on the geologic timescale, really. Don't you feel better?
Humans are the single most dominant and destructive species in planetary history. But sentient humans have been around for what, a million years? The Earth has been here for roughly 4.5 billion. No matter how you slice it, the Earth still sees us as just another fly in its bedroom. Isn't that reassuring?
There are two ways to react to such a viewpoint: One is to say, "Oh my God, what the hell is wrong with us and just look at how much damage we've wrought."
Option 2 is to ask: "Who the hell cares? If all our remains vanish in a couple of hundred thousand years, does it really matter how much damage we inflict? After all, there's no way to say whether or not the planet really gives a damn one way or the other about our species. Hell, we could nuke the whole place tomorrow and the planet would merely shudder and shrug and pause for a few million years and start all over. Right?"
Millions of humans, if they think of it at all, view the Earth as merely a giant sandbox, a mute playground to be trammeled and paved over and drilled into and burned through and sliced up like so much ecological pie.
I have friends who don't exercise. I know plenty of people who still smoke and drink a ton of beer and get stoned frequently and eat gallons of processed foods and watch TV as if it was pixelated cake, and the last time they truly got their hearts pumping was when they had to walk five blocks from their house to the sushi joint because their car broke down.
They just laugh. "What's the point of eating right and exercising?" they say. Why the hell spend all that money on yoga and gyms and vitamins and try to take excessive care of the body when we're all just gonna break down and die anyway?
It is the cutest viewpoint, like, ever. The initial reply is almost too obvious to explain: The point of a healthy lifestyle is not to live longer. It is to live better, right now, in the moment, to breathe deeper and dream more lucidly and step lighter and orgasm stronger and be able to touch your toes and touch your lover's toes and try to evolve, just a little, while we're here.
Maybe the planet is no different. Maybe we should take care of it because it makes our lives better and our orgasms stronger and the trees look at us without cringing and begging for a divorce. You think?
But truly, the Earth may not really care. If we abuse her to death, she might merely shake us off like a bad rash, a nasty head cold, a giant whining bipedal kidney stone. After all, despite all our whining and stomping, we really ain't all that.
But your soul. Your soul cares. But you knew that already. Right?
"Where there is sacrifice there is someone collecting the sacrificial offerings."-- Ayn Rand
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
www.myspace.com/jensvad
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
But I've often wondered how much damage we (who truly are insignificant in the grand scheme) can truly do to this planet. It even seems presumptuous to think we can. Then again, I'm no scientist.
www.myspace.com/jensvad
BS. Humans are not the cause of all species who go extinct. In fact, humans do a lot to save species that are on the verge.
Personally, I think it's pretty shortsighted to save a weak species that is dying out and prohibit a stronger species from taking it's place.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
see, looky, looky...a conservative and a liberal can agree on something.
seriously though, it is an interesting perspective to take. i am sure the world certainly would recover from us, probably better off without us...but yea, i think we think far too much of our *importance* in the whole grand scheme of things. definitely agree, we ain't all *that*...but sure, it would be damn nice if we at least tried to do a better job.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
nice article.
True.
I don't think it's shortsighted at all to save a strong species that is dying out because of humans, because of our pollution... I doubt these species would die out if we weren't here...
naděje umírá poslední
The earth isn't my mother.
And who cares if "she" recovers if there's nobody left?
I agree we need to change many of our behaviors. I am a fan of being good stewards. But I'll never understand this earth first kind of thinking. I prioritize me over my front yard.
are they truly a strong species if they are dying out? Isn't that the basis for survival of the fittest? If those animals aren't strong enough to adapt to another animals ways (ours) then those animals by default aren't strong enough to survive. And we'll never know if those species would die out if we weren't here, b/c we are here and that is the environment in which they live.
dislcaimer: i think that humans should be very good stewards of the earth and treat it with respect and not go out of their way to end a species.
No one's asking you to kill yourself in the name of mother earth, you know.
Well, humans aren't good stewards at all and don't treat the earth with respect... you can dump toxic waste in a lake, and say well if the animals can't adjust to it, maybe they're not fit to survive, they are obviously weak animals...
http://www.endangeredspecie.com/causes_of_endangerment.htm
naděje umírá poslední
i agree that humans aren't good stewards of the earth...no argument here. My response was more tongue in cheek...not many people are fit to survive toxic chemicals.
"animals" is not the same thing as "species"
Doesn't anyone beside me think about the cool, new, strong species we are often preventing when we keep a weak species holding on? Isn't the prevention of a new species just as bad or worse as letting a weak one go extinct?
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.