Nicholas Kristof wrote a thinking piece on “Our Favorite Planet” in this
Sunday’s NY Times. He is indicting the deniers who say that the scientists are wrong. The scientists and thinkers who are telling us that the melting ice is caused by climate change, caused by dependency on oil, caused by carbon emissions and by our Congress and President that are doing nothing; he concludes: that these are ‘in concert’ endangering the only planet we have.
When you think about it, the only planet we have is the one we call Earth. We have lived on it since we appeared a little after (as time is recorded) a similar being, the Neanderthal, inhabited the earth. There were Cro-Magnons who were like and probably are us. They were bi-pedal, had oppositional thumbs, made clothing, fire and tools and promptly began transforming the land. They domesticated some animals while systematically causing others to become extinct. They were and still are at the top of the food chain. It took them several million years to overpopulate this globe but you can’t fault them for not taking advantage of a good thing when they saw it.
They, the humans – perhaps an amalgamation of Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons with some mutations thrown in – liked to use specialized tools they created to kill each other. They conducted a lot of wars over territory or just because they didn’t like the people on the other side of the hill from them. Those wars cost us a lot of young men who liked to play with weapons and test their strength against each other. They also raped a lot and destroyed older civilizations as they proved how powerful they were. They gave little thought to the only planet we have.
Is it just now that enough people have given over to think about this, the only planet we have? Have the war-makers and the despoilers of the Earth in search of profits taken over and rule what we soon will not have – the only planet we have? I would hope not. The signs are all there. The deniers and the selfish and the crazed monsters who need to rule and don’t care whom they ruin to get where they want to be – regardless of the damage done to this only planet we have. They still march in straight lines and sing their songs that everything is O.K. and our grandchildren will sort things out.
Our favorite planet among all those that might exist out past the Sun is this earth, this special place that has been our home for millennia. It would be a sad thing if we were the cause of its destruction because we haven’t the imagination or the education to make democracy work and get rid of the war-mongers and profit makers who use war and destruction to enhance their lives in their little protected enclaves surrounded by the waste they have made of the once beautiful Earth. In the mean time, millions on our planet go hungry, without shelter or hope. It gets harder and harder to breathe and the cost of eating goes up more and more. We ride in cars that go faster and the planes cannot move because their fuel costs are too high. And, we talk about Pastors, flag pins and staying the course.
This is the only planet we have.