Extinction
In the morning after I have fed the dog his breakfast I’m standing by my espresso maker waiting for it to make me cup of LavAzza coffee. Around me I see pictures of a few of the more beautiful places I have been since I graduated from U.T. El Paso forty years ago.
Bruges, the most well preserved medieval city in Belgium, sometimes called the Venice of the North. The Eifel Tower, the Louvre, Saint Sulpice Church just north of the beautiful Luxembourg gardens, the Notre Dame cathedral, and the long stairway that Brassai made famous which leads up the hill to the Sacre’ Coeur Basilica in Paris. Gaudi’s famous dragon in the park Guell in Barcelona. New York City back when the twin towers of the world trade center were still standing. The enigmatic standing stones of Stonehenge in the Salisbury plain, and the Roman baths 25 miles to the northwest in Bath, England. The great Egyptian pyramids at Giza, just south of Cairo. Some coral that I picked up off the beach 20 years ago in Cozumel, Mexico. Charlemagne's cathedral, built 1,200 years ago and still standing in Aachen, Germany.
Mankind has made some beautiful things and has been responsible for many wondrous discoveries. Unfortunately, most of the people living on our planet still do not have access to fresh water or modern medical care. With all the coal and oil that has been burned since the industrial revolution, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has now risen higher than in millions of years. There is no question that during the next 50 - 100 years sea level rise will force millions of people to abandon their homes and cities, and move further inland. The planet wide temperature rise will cause massive regional changes in the climate, which will result in countries that are currently farming being turned into deserts.
As high a percentage of people have HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. as do in Angola or Haiti.
The overwhelming majority of life on the planet Earth is smaller than the human eye can see. As long as this planet doesn’t dry out completely (like Mars did) this tiny life will continue. Maybe even some larger creatures will survive, like cockroaches and rats.
Nuclear technology and weaponry is continuing to proliferate. It is inevitable that some lunatic fringe terrorist group will get its own bomb eventually. Or perhaps some germs being developed by various “advanced” governments for potential use as weapons of mass warfare.
The chances that human life will continue for another 500 or 1,000 years is looking pretty unlikely. I am really lucky to have lived at the peak, and I’m just as lucky to have had a good job which allowed me to travel so widely.
It is a pity that mankind is so aggressive and cruel. Man also puts far too much credibility in religious faith and miracles, rather than reason. Organized religions have caused more death, suffering, and warfare than any other thing.
There really is no need to worry or get all worked up about Obama’s latest bank bailout plan. Or how he will fail in getting universal health care implemented. Honest. In a few hundred years none of this will matter at all.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
