The Earth and the Arrogance of Humankind

It perplexes me, at times, when people talk about saving the earth. An old friend of mine (a respected cutting edge neuro-scientist) once told me about a little debate he had with a biology professor about the restoration of lakes and such. He said the biologist mentioned bringing them back to their "original" state. My friend queried what "original" state meant, since a couple of million years ago it's "original" state might have been sulphuric in nature. We forget that for millions of years the earth would have been totally uninhabitable by humankind. So when you hear environmentalists talking about "saving the earth", what they really mean is that we need to save ourselves. The planet would be just fine without us, as history has already proven. Maybe it's time we stop talking about the earth and start talking about the problem - us. The earth couldn't give a shit about what we do, she's a tough old bird.