Pollinator bees, polar bears, pheasantshell mussels, North American bats, cod, and the list of dying species goes on and on. There are, of course, those species we are not even aware of and the ones that have already become extinct. All of this carnage due to human activity. We are parasites inflated with hubris, hollow of spiritual integrity, flexing our intellectual muscles to ravage and desecrate our neighbors indiscriminately.
Well, we have made our beds and we will, inevitably, sleep in them. We (industrialized cultures) have failed to appreciate and respect the complex, intricate interconnectedness of the web that we are a part of. We have, despite the warnings (of indigenous peoples, scientists, and earth herself), continued to rape and pillage the hands that feed us. As the ocean temperatures rise causing oxygen levels to decrease, large fish species are unable to survive. But, the jelly fish are able to survive and they are paving the way for the ocean to turn into the primordial blob it started out as. Yes, life is regressing. We are losing complex species to more primitive species. And, this is how we will die off. How mother nature will rid herself of her most ungrateful spawn. Because parasites eventually kill their host and, in doing so, die themselves. We are the worst thing that has happened to earth and it likely has something to do with the fact that we thought we were the best thing. If every single human disappeared tomorrow, with the exception of our pets, every single species and ecosystem would start to recuperate. Mother nature does not need us. We do not contribute to the web in any meaningful way, we just leech from it. Climate change, extinction of species, etc. all of this saddens me so deeply. At the same time, I recognize that this is the only way for her to rid herself of us. As we have less land available for industrialized agriculture and large scale food shortages become the norm, as the oceans swallow islands and coastal cities, as we have less clean water available to sustain us, the earth will not be able to sustain us and we too will die. And, our death is what will save our Earth