I love the outdoors. I’m an eagle scout. When I had property I had a 1000 sq.ft. garden that I loved pulling atomic red carrots out of. I camp/fish/hunt.
With that love of the outdoors, I also had developed a bad taste for the city. I’m still not really a fan of cities, but my attitude about a lot of things has shifted. Now, when I see a city, I see a monument to human achievement. Look at how incredible we are as a species. We have completely taken this rock from which we began as humble ooze and redesigned it to fit our own purposes. Incredible.
What happened was a shift in the way I look at the Earth. The other day I saw a bumper sticker.
What we need is a different way to look at this planet. The idea in this bumper sticker, often espoused by those of liberal leaning persuasions, is a cult-like idea in the flawlessness of the planet, as if our environment were perfectly-suited for us and we need to treat it as our one good refuge in a vast, empty vacuum. Well, wrong. Our planet has tried to kill us. It tries to kill us now. We suffer drought, famine, flood, fire, hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, asteroid strikes, etc. We should be grateful for those warriors who engage this planet in regular combat. We as a species are winning this fight, but occasionally we suffer some casualties. We should honor those warriors that do battle with Earth, from scientists to those gallant firefighters we lost in Arizona this week.
Heroes
and
VIllians?
The earth is beautiful. But she’s a murderous bitch. And like a woman, it’s the beautiful ones that hurt us most. But consider if you will, if Earth were perfect for life, then why is there evolution? As I say often, there will come a day when we must leave this planet. If we continue down the path of viewing it as perfect, or that we in fact belong to the planet, then we doom ourselves as a species when the planet is no longer habitable. We must look to that eventuality lest we attack the problem when it is too late.
There’s more out there than our tiny rock. Just as we need warriors battling the Earth, so too we need our warriors who battle the universe.
