|
What other species has had even a tiny fraction of the influence on the environment that humans have had?
What kind of a world are we humans leaving to the rest of life for the all the generations to come?
All of life has affected the earth -- there was no oxygen in the atmosphere before plants evolved and could split water through photosynthesis. They do this by making electricity at the molecular level, by the way.
There was no soil before the cycle of life was started. All this wonderful oil (and coal and natural gas) came from the earthly remains of millions of years of life. Each gallon of gasoline represents about 92 TONS of biological material.
And we humans have burned through a majority of this stored energy in less than 200 years. We have burned more than half of all the oil that has ever been burned since about 1980.
If all of life affects the earth, then how can we *not* have had a huge affect; by burning through over a million years worth of stored carbon per year? While that carbon was stored away slowly, the earth changed. So when we release it quickly, it is having a huge effect.
We need to take full responsibility for what we have done.
|