A friend threw their glass bottle into one of the many recycling containers at Whole Foods.
“Just saving the planet” they remarked. We walked on with nothing else said about it.
I know this person. I understand their levels of facetiousness. It was a casual remark with a hint of irony. OK. Though this innocuous statement poked the hamster in my brain wheel to action. Why are we saving the planet? What is saving the planet?
I hear it all too often in various forms.
“Save the planet!” some demand angrily.
“I’m saving the planet!” some exclaim, quite smugly, while eating Sun Chips in a compostable bag.
What the hell are these people talking about?
The planet earth is an oblate geoid attempting to careen through space, held in check by the gravity well of our sun.
The planet wants to explode and implode, fly through gamma rays and into other star clusters. Just to say hello.
The planet does not notice there are creatures living on its humid, warty back claiming sovereignty and rights to mine its many zits and pores; Shaving its armpits of vegetation and bombing its skin.
The planet is as aware of us and the zebras as you are of all the microbes feasting on your skin right this second.
The earth could scrape us off its body with glaciers and feel as much guilt about it as you do when you roll over in your sleep and squash a lady bug. Or darken our skies with volcanic ash for decades and starve us into submission without losing a beat.
Our planet is kind of a jerk.
What all of these planet savers are really trying to say is: “We want to protect the future of humanity on the planet.”
Which I tend to agree with. And so do you, probably. Most everybody, whether because it’s genetically hard wired or culturally appeasing wants a future.
The planet does not give a shit about us. As previously mentioned, it would rather be partying without its magnetosphere on in alpha centauri with some supernova right now.
Screw the planet. I like humans, being one might bias my belief structure a bit. I think we’re pretty neat and just alright.
I find it odd that most often the “planet savers” (who are actually humanists) propose solutions that would kill many humans. Genetically modified golden rice with vitamin A to cure eye diseases in millions of children is villainized by Greenpeace. The Wilderness Society decries attempts to put wild lands back in private hands, when the federal government has done the most environmental destruction of any group. Practically any person who is on the internet too much wants the world to switch immediately to solar and wind even though that would surely kill hundreds of millions of people in a relatively short time.
Why are these Planet (human) Savers trying to destroy so many humans?
Serious answers to this question deserve books addressing psychology, philosophy, sociology, technology.
I aim to only raise the question here. Stimulate the thought wheels in your noggin and create a discourse.
Ok, you can go back to looking at cat videos now. Thank you for your time.