Hubris

Dave Foreman notes in his essay “The Anthropocene and Ozymandias” that life began on earth some 3.5 billion years ago, but that is almost beyond comprehension.  He urges us instead to think back to the arrival of more complex life forms which began in what geologists call “the Cambrian explosion.”  That was only 545 million years ago.

Foreman then asks us to consider a book of 545 pages.  Each page represents a million years.  The last sentence, maybe some 13 to 15 words before the end, would be when modern homo sapiens left Africa and began its spread across the continents.  Farming began maybe three words before the end.  The last word would take us from about 2000 BCE to today.  The period at the end represents the last 100 years with our exploding population, radioactive fallout, biocides, greenhouse gases, and plastic waste.  4/5ths of that period is within my lifetime.

Now think about our leaders.  Think about people like Elon Musk or Donald Trump or Ted Cruz or the Koch Brothers.  Think about the Supreme Court, or the Republican House of Representatives or the MAGA movement.

Foreman ends his essay with the poem “Ozymandias.”  Google it.

You can read Foreman’s essay in Ben A Minteer and Stephen J. Pyne, eds.  After Preservation:  Saving American Nature in the Age of Humans.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, c. 2015.