Well then, please take your umbrage elsewhere.
Or, you could demand to speak to the manager…
Just don’t talk to a chair.
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Ugh.
Creepy as hell. That gave me chills.
I know I should leave it, but I have to ask…
So what’s a solution to the problem you’re describing?
Because what I’m hearing is people bad, animals good. I don’t necessarily disagree with that (pretty much my go-to response for a lot of things) but…what can we do about the damage done?
As a society, there’s little any of can do about it as individuals.
Tear it all down? I think the other side has that approach covered pretty well.
I was thinking of an article I read some time ago, maybe at Ars Technica, that described how the world would revert if all humans disappeared tomorrow. Fascinating images and story. Disturbing in a way, yet I was surprised to find myself wanting to visit the places in those drawings and live in that world.
I’m sure I’d regret it.
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These are hard philosophical questions and they almost always reflect a strong human bias on both sides of the argument. The very concept of winners and losers is a human value claim that does not exist outside our perspective.
Humans have a hard time with recognizing that we are part of the system. We have a hard time thinking at ecological time scales. We have a hard time not taking sides. We blame the coyote for wanting to eat our free-range cats. We blame the termites for eating our front porch and the moles for making dirt piles in our lawns. We change the system and expect all the indigenous residents to respect our authority and get off our lawns.
There is little doubt in the ecological community that we are entering a sixth mass extinct and that it is being driven by the most pernicious invasive species to have evolved on the planet, but even without that, 99% of all species that have occurred on Earth have gone extinct. The Earth has been evolving ecosystems and modifying them for at least 4 billion years. Extinction drives evolution and the Earth has plenty of time, at least on human time scales.
We are part of the ecosystem. We are inside the ecosphere. We are no different than the coyotes and termites. Moving to Mars with Elon Musk is not a viable option. If we value our survival as a species, then we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden. It’s easy to say “screw it, we’re all gonna die, anyway”. It’s a lot harder to say “I will do what I can”. I can change my way of interacting with the system. I can set an example for others, even if no one else notices. And I will do it for the uniquely biased and uniquely human reason that it makes me feel like I’m doing something and that I care.
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“The snake and the snake.” That will fit nicely on a t-shirt:
Trump '24
"The snake and the snake."
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“When man becomes greater than nature, nature, which gave us birth, will respond.” - Loren Eisley
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Say that to a Tsunami
The impact humanity has had on nature is unlike anything else that’s ever happened. We have the smarts and ability to control ourselves and understand our place in the environment, and we also understand that by killing nature, we kill ourselves. Knowing these things hasn’t changed our behavior, which is why, if we go, everything goes.
Yes, the Earth will be fine, but as a species, we will have been a monumental failure.
You weren’t kidding!
I went to my local book store yesterday, and, lo and behold, the Penzey’s is just a couple doors down! It’s a really handsome-looking store. And they’ve got that big juicy heart in the window. Welcoming AF.
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Thanks! That kid made me finally feel seen.
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