Our Special Tribe; Wise?

 

Douglas Adams wrote a very compelling bit of allegory about a sentient puddle of water which, upon viewing its condition remarked how well the hole it was in fit it so perfectly; as if the hole was created specially to fit the puddle. Then, as the day went on and the sun rose higher and the puddle evaporated, a bit of panic struck the sentient puddle as it slowly became non-existent. 

 

The allegory was meant as a counter-argument to the proposition that the earth was made, designed, created especially for human beings. (That the planet is populated with thousands of species suited to this planet and no other seems to have gone unnoticed to the proponents of grand design.)

 

As record-setting temperatures continue to topple to new record-setting temperatures, as glaciers evaporate and melt to raise ocean levels rise, as droughts grind on causing crops to fail amid rising world hunger, it must be understood that our own species; Homo Sapiens Sapiens, a twig on the branch of the Great Ape family, is NOT the sentient puddle. This world was NOT created to fit us. Homo Sapiens have been around for fewer than half a million years. A slim trifle when compared with the estimated four billion-year existence of the earth, itself. 

 

It is estimated that more than 99% of all life on the planet has gone extinct over the course of the planet’s existence. Humans are but a slim sliver of the history of the planet of water, oxygen and life. Others of far more scientific erudition than this writer have stated that this is so and have provided reams of evidence in peer-reviewed papers.  

 

However, the hubris of humanity, bolstered by the self-serving mythology that ‘we are special’ has placed the very existence of our species at risk. We are at risk of destroying our own bio-sphere – the sentient puddle’s hole – upon which our survival depends. Excessive heat warnings are issued by meteorological agencies and scoffed at hubristically by those whose very survival is at risk. (Recall the sight of the US Senator offering a snowball as proof that climate change is a hoax!)

 

Our species is most assuredly special in many ways; others have counted the ways in Shakespearean fashion.  However, our species is less than 1% of all the species which were formed on planet earth and are now extinct. It must be kept in mind that there have been numerous mass extinction events on this planet; the end of the Age of Dinosaurs is but one such event. Another is the Permian Extinction – the Great Dying – which happened 250,000,000 years ago. It is the worst, most extensive extinction event in the planet’s history and all but eliminated life on ‘our’ blue marble. Keep in mind that there were at least 4 other mass extinction events before our little tribe split off from the bonobos, chimps and other great apes on our way to becoming Homo Sapiens about 300,000 years ago.

 

Doomsayers claim that we may be witnessing one more such mass-extinction event. Are we - Homo Sapiens Sapiens, the ‘wise man’- actually wise enough to understand how precarious our existence is on this tiny orb in space?