June 5, 2004 ...
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The second day of my exploration of California is divided into four parts:
#1 Owens Valley - Death Valley National Park to the Alabama Hills
#2 Manzanar - Manzanar National Historical Site, Japanese Internment camp during World War II
#3 Mammoth Lakes - Twin Lakes & Twin Lakes Waterfall
#4 Yosemite National Park Tioga Pass Road - wow!
***
This world is filled with such an abundance of beauty that it is quite tragic to contemplate all the thousands of different ways that humans have chosen to live miserably and spread misery all over the globe, misery upon misery and sorrow upon sorrow as humans have covered the Earth in blood from our wars and violence, pollution from our economic activity, ecological destruction on behalf of our civilization, and extinction from all of the above.
Is there any tragedy in the Universe which can compare with the Universe's ultimate tragedy, humankind?
I don't imagine so. Either the Earth is the only living planet in the Universe or the Earth is afflicted with the only technological civilization in the Universe. In either case: Humans are alone.
But what difference does it make of humans are alone or if there are a billion billion technological civilization in the galaxy? The Universe is too large and too dangerous to allow any sort of contact with aliens. Not even a conversation across the stars is possible.
Nature has confined us to the Earth and it is quite unfortunate that we have treated the Earth like a disposable planet. Once you have destroyed your own home there isn't anywhere else to go. Once you have destroyed your own home you've destroyed your own future and driven your species to extinction.
I would hope that photographs of the beautiful, living Earth might serve to wake people up so that they might realize what they are destroying, but this is an idealistic foolish dream given human nature and the imperatives of capitalism.
Humans won't stop destroying the Earth until there are no more humans.
That's how the human story ends. There's nothing at all unique about extinction ... it has happened a billion times already.
David Mathews
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