Perspective

Today is Earth Day 2018.

A day to remember that the planet on which we live is in a delicate balance with humans and all other creatures, plants and geo-oceano-atmospheric constituents and activities. It is often a day when, if we have any conscience, we worry about our pollutant behaviours, our excesses in reaping natural resources, and the overall fragility of our micro- and macro-ecosystems. It is also a day to observe the beauty in the natural world around us, to be grateful for what millions of years created for us, and to reflect on the moments in time that we occupy as a human species on a single planet in many galaxies. It is certainly a day when one is humbled by the very complexity of balance that underpins our good fortune on a spinning globe in a special zone where carbon, oxygen, temperature and atmosphere provide us with a place to feel comfortable. The creativity of humans and other adaptive species of animals and plants in this space and time is utterly amazing.  Much has been accomplished in a stuttering fashion over thousands of years by our species alone.

The risk has always been our hubris.

Our penchant for more, for excess, for here-and now thinking. Just how long we can maintain the ecosystem that includes diversity of wildlife, stability of climate and the very survival of our world’s livability is unclear. I often wonder whether we can outlive the sun or live to see our sun fail.  What will the Earth be like if we get that far? How will we support the steady growth of populations that harvest too much, waste too much, and care too little about the future? No one person can change this situation.  No one government or not-for-profit agency…… If we do not consume ourselves in the failings of war and competition, we could aspire to a long-lived planetary environment that is healthy for most.  We have a lot of work do to for each other. May we find the path while still creating and innovating with the great spirit of free will.