Our Downfall: Self-Obsession With Humanity

We are so full of ourselves as a species, it’s rather disgusting and unseemly. We are certain of our superiority and Dominion over all life on Earth and we act as though we are the only inhabitants that matter. WE AREN’T. In fact, every single species of plant and animal can claim the exact same ancient heritage on the exact same Tree of Life where we are but another branch. If we are to survive, we NEED to care more about the Tree, and less about the Branch. We need to be more humble and connected to our Roots.

Yes, we are different. We are audacious, technological and have fancy languages and mathematical skills. We clothe and house ourselves differently and make incredible things of all sorts. Yet we are NOT separate from the Web of Life. We rely on oxygen made by plants, the pollination of bees, the pest control of birds and spiders, the decomposition of fungi and worms and MUCH more. But this article isn’t about us, it’s about all the OTHERS who we share the Planet with, the other Inhabitants who have earned their place through EONS of struggle and sublime interdependency well beyond the simple workings of a Swiss watch. The exact same Eons that made us, made all of them too, including the billions of species that have gone extinct, the dead branches.

As we know, if enough branches of a tree die, the whole tree dies. But I don’t want to oversimplify with the metaphor of the Tree—it’s much more than a tree, it’s an entire Biosphere and Ecosystem of unimaginable complexity and richness. This is the type of richness I can easily imagine being celebrated far beyond our Solar System—the Blue Jewel of Sol. This is the stuff of Galactic Legends, this highly unlikely Oasis in the vast desert vacuum of Space. If there are higher order beings on our galaxy, you can almost be assured they know about and care about The Earth. It’s also not hard to imagine how unimpressed they are with humanity, this angry little insane, unsatisfied Ape that shits everywhere, exudes toxins, wars on itself and all the other Normal inhabitants. We leave a trail of lifeless, gray crust wherever we go where once there was happy life, birdsongs and bounty.

It’s actually quite embarrassing. We are terrible representatives of the Earth. Not only are we greedy, taking much more than we need, we are mean. We hurt the other animals in…