I messed up! I was going to run this cartoon from five years ago on Earth Day, which was yesterday. I’m not going to worry very much about that, though, for every day is Earth Day. Notice I don’t say, “should be Earth Day.” Every day is “Earth day.” Our little space rock will keep on spinning, will keep on warming and cooling and probably hosting some form of life as long as the water holds out. Whether that life is human matters not one whit to the planet. It is our conceit that once a year we pat Earth on the crust and make vague well-meaning promises about taking care of it. I’m not saying Earth Day is a bad thing, and I’m certainly not saying we shouldn’t try to protect and preserve the world as we know it. I’m only saying it is humanity in the balance. Not Earth. If we truly believed that, every day would be Earth Day, but we don’t. What we truly believe is that we have a right to exist on our own terms, and if fouling our nest is necessary, Earth simply will adjust. At least we have that last part right.
34 responses to “Earth to Humans!”
Frankly if Jimmy has minions he should see a good pediatrice, nothing worse than not being able to sit.
Mark, look here. http://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/takeitfromthetinkersons/?morec=1 If that doesn
t make sense, go back a day
Good morning Villagers….
GR 😉 welcome back ‘home’, missed your posts. Just where all do you travel? Do you fly yourself or book commercial…just curious 🙂
E gads…..yesterday, two of the bottom conveyor belts would not ‘convey’ (cute, huh)…sooooo, Ian and I had to place 1200 feet (600 feet of belt each) of eggs on other lines….I went nuts, came home cleaned up, ate, drank a six pack…..went to bed.
AND them suckers better run this morning…..
Know who I have been thinking of the past week or so…..Jackie Monies. Haven’t heard from her in about 3 weeks or so. I know her husband was going to start cancer treatment.
Jackie, if you are still reading our comments….prayers and thoughts to you and yours…Amen.
Ya’ll have a blessed day…I am.
=^..^=
It’s funny, but I read the caption of the cartoon differently. As in “Observe Earth” Day. When I stand back and do that, observe all of creation in its infinite variety and magnificent design, I see God’s hand and stand in awe.
Very profound, Jimmy. What a shift in perspective! “…it is humanity in the balance. Not Earth.”
should be read aloud each morning in every governmental congress on the planet. Thank you.
Bonnie: Remember to also observe/contemplate the ‘magnificent design’ of the AIDS virus, the mosquito’s mouthparts, and the tsunami. Peace, emb
Geologically, it appears we have had five mass extensions. At least that’s what the fossil record seems to show. A substantial number of mammal extinctions also occurred at the end of the Pliocene era, as recently as 14,000 years ago. There’s lots of discussion about the current rate of extinction, an how much higher the rate of extinction is over the expected background level. Man may be causing that, and also may be a victim. We should probably do what we can to slow the rate of change. To anthropomorphize a bit, the planet doesn’t really care who or what lives on the surface.
http://www.amnh.org/science/biodiversity/extinction/Intro/OngoingProcess.html
One of the things to preserve our species might be to get a genetically stable sample of the population in orbit or on the moon or Mars. It might not make any difference, since we are remarkably good at killing each other. It may not take an asteroid or comet impact to push past the tipping point. We may be able to manage that well enough on our own. We must continue to be more efficient and effective in use of resources. The Erlichs predicted mass starvation in the 1968 “The Population Bomb”. Since then, the global population has more than doubled. As Erlich himself admitted, “we underestimated the resilience of the world system”. By increasing productivity we’ve increased the holding capacity of the planet.
There is some indication that even our rampant growth may be self limiting. Can’t post a full link without going to moderation, but I have included the text of a link that can be cut and pasted. It’s an interesting, recent, paper on population dynamics. The premise is that within the next 50 years or so we may hit a more stable (sustainable) level of population.
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/153596/
We also need to spend time and money on “blue sky” ideas that might shift the levels of sustainable population. Things like the original shift from hunter-gatherer to deliberate agriculture. Or, the development of the germ theory of disease with antibiotics and antivirals. Refrigeration, electronic data processing and storage, steam engines, internal combustion, and even genetic engineering are all changes that allowed more people to live with higher standards of living. (Anybody that’s a type 1 diabetic using Humulinon Humalog?)
We may yet kill ourselves off, but I have higher hopes and more optimism. Seems like so far that we have managed to avoid disaster somehow. With a bit of effort and some good luck we might just make it as a species after all.
Darn! Dropped in the moderation pit because I had two links…. the blog software corrected my “error” for a line that looked like a link, though I’d left off the all important header. Seems the software auto-corrected that omission for me and added the “http://” that I had left off.
One of my Facebook friends is annoyed with “Otto Correct”. This strikes me as very clever and funny … guess I’m easily amused.