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| The city deer are living well |
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| Telepathic mind meld |
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| Parrot Peak La Plata Mountains |
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| La Plata Canyon |
I just finished reading THE END OF NATURE by Bill McKibben. If you have not read it I recommend it, though I will warn you it is not a happy book. I won't describe the book because he explains the concepts more concisely than I can. Let's just say that I agree with many of his conclusions. In an odd way, however, I did find the book uplifting. Yes, we as a species have screwed up the planet to the point where our presence can be felt anywhere. The part that makes me feel happy is when he talks about the Gaia hypothesis. The Gaia hypothesis is a scientist version of what many an eastern philosophy have always said; that Earth is more or less one big organism, not a lifeless rock on top of which life happens to grow. We will likely turn this world into a place uninhabitable for humans. So what? Mother Earth will be just as happy with amoebas as humans. We are not the special child we think we are.
If you are one of the breeders, and you want a better future for your kids and grandkids, then this book could make you want to change your way of life. Or maybe you think that we can bio-engineer our way out of the climate crises. That is up to you. I will live as simply as I can manage because I'm selfish, and I like nature the way it is, without people messing with it. More importantly I will immerse myself in the warm embrace of Mother Earth despite the risk of putting myself at the mercy of a being that has none. The Ponderosa Pines I view from my window are just as important as I am. I am not special.
We have polluted the water with livestock so that it is no longer safe to drink from even the clearest mountain stream. The atmosphere so altered from human emissions that the life giving sun can fry our delicate skin. Well, I'm not giving in. Yeah, I'll take some precautions here and there. I'll treat my water, most of the time. I'll keep my shirt on, most of the time. There will,however, be times when I'll just be the animal I really am. I may end up with Giardia and skin cancer. That is my fault, the fault of human destruction through laziness. It will not be the fault of nature. Removing myself to the human created world is, in my opinion, even more dangerous. I'm exposed to more carcinogens in the "civilized" world than in the God forsaken desert. Luckily for me, Gaia just don't give a shit.
