Well, it was “fun” while it lasted!
Sure, we tried to impose our will on the world and render the biosphere uninhabitable…
But everyone makes mistakes now and then.
Still, despite the judgment by Blue-Ribbon titans that we fell short of the mark
(mainly because we had made so many marks that it was hard to pick just one)
at least we’ll go down in history as the ones who tried to take down all of history but failed –
or at least didn’t completely succeed, but hey there’s still time (barely) to get it wrong right:
there are still fossil fuels left to exploit!
more nanoplastics to saturate tissues with!
nuclear isotopes just waiting to be released!
ecosystem cycles that are asking to be interrupted!
nitrogen carbon and phosphorous oh my!
People, we clearly have work to do if we want to be remembered by the rocks and trees and ice cores.
This isn’t something we should take lightly, being demoted to just another spectator to the apocalypse.
It’s our given right to foul the nest and we can’t let a few stuffed shirts knock us from our perch.
So while the Anthropocene may not be the call, we can always hope for something more:
The Apocalypscene or the Plasticene or the Endobscene or something not punny at all awaits
As we remake this brave new world from Terra Incognito into a Terra Nova and back again
Only to find that we weren’t all that but we were something, all right –
With time, scarcely, to grow into someone the world is appreciative of for our fine qualities
that sometimes get obscured by too much of the good things
without remembering to balance them with recognition of others
upon whom we rely and are interdependent with on all respects
across time and over wide spaces…
Taking our place, finally, among the creatures and features
from which we were made and always have been
no matter what we call the moment that has been foretold.
—
NOTE: Did you catch the news that the Anthropocene concept was voted down by a panel of experts? It wasn’t so much that we haven’t f*cked things up on Planet Earth, but rather that they couldn’t agree on a specific moment (among many to choose from) when it was clear that we thoroughly and irretrievably did so. Just another day in the life of a superb species trying to find its way in a world of its own making.