6th Mass Extinction - Nat Morley
"Man has lost the capacity to foresee and forestall. He will end by destroying the Earth."
Albert Schweitzer
The phrase "The Tipping Point" is used more and more frequently of late, as we continue to degrade the planet and steadfastly refuse to mend our ways, or even to elect leaders who will be willing accomplices for the common good. In fact we display a stupefying proclivity to choose leaders who are steadfastly opposed to environmental remediation, and we edge ever closer to the brink.
Nat Morley's marvelous illustration above illustrates so graphically how perilously near we are to the abyss.
I just finished Tim Birkhead's excellent book, The Wonderful Mr Willughby, wherein he cites the following passage from the mid seventeenth century, speaking of the kind of religious fanaticism that is distressingly commonplace today, "The garland has been torn from the Head of learning and placed on the dull brows of disloyal ignorance." It defies credulity that there are those who dismiss physics, chemistry and other disciplines that operate based on evidence, in favour of metaphysical nonsense and wish to supplant the science curriculum in schools with the spurious beliefs of different religions and myriad sects within them. There was even a US president who said, "The scientists don't know what they're talking about", all the while tweeting on a device developed by - you guessed it, scientists!
Elizabeth Kolbert has authored a very important book, The Sixth Extinction (2014). Essential reading, I say!
Equally important, and very sobering, The Weather Makers (2005) by Tim Flannery.
I fear, however, it is all too late. We have become the architects of our own demise.
