Earth's 4.5 billion years!

 As Iowa has been shivering under sub-zero temperatures, I've been mostly staying inside. All my big houseplants are spending the winter inside too and filling my space with greenery. As I sit in my cozy recliner, it's as if I'm surrounded by lush tropical forest, but with all the conveniences of modern life. A heated foot massager is at my feet, healthy snacks at my side, my phone on the stand beside me, and a clear view of the big screen that brings the world into my living room. And on this device, as I wrap myself in a soft blanket, I've been watching all 8 episodes of an amazing series called Life on Our Planet. Steven Spielberg is the producer and Morgan Freeman the narrator of this ambitious collection of films, and it has been masterfully done. The series starts with the beginning of our planet, focusing on the extreme energies that brought this collection of elements together in the solar system, ending with a huge round ball that gradually hardened into a planet. And then one by one, these 8 episodes show each of the ages the planet has passed through and survived, as it's shifted into new forms and new states. Humans arrive at the end of the very last episode. And the focus of this "nature film" is not about how bad we are or how destructive we've been. That's refreshing. The striking reality of this history is how incredibly brief has been the human occupation of the earth. The planet has seen 5 massive extinctions since life first evolved here. And we are heading toward a sixth. This time it is being hastened (perhaps totally caused) by our species' foolishness: we have forgotten that our lives are dependent on the health of the environment under our feet and above our heads and all around us.

This film series about what has come before us here on earth has changed how I look at our modern world. Compared to the first years of our planet's history 4.5 billion years ago, human presence is like the blink of an eye, and it was not long ago in planetary time that we still lived in caves, then began to plant seeds, and to use our intrepid intelligence for new things. On a cold day like today, I think of early humans before the last ice age, doing their best to adapt to a changing climate, gathering in caves with fire for warmth, wearing the thick skins of animals to preserve their body's heat, and doing their best to survive the gradually worsening conditions. 

Today I look around at our current human world and am in awe of what we have accomplished in so little time. It is remarkable what this late-arriving species, homo sapiens, has created here: an environment totally focused on the convenience and comfort and health of ourselves. I am not feeling at all judgmental about this. We've done what all living things do, make the best situation for themselves. Because of these human advances, I can sit in my warm little home while outside the door it is -6 degrees. It's why I have plenty of food to eat even in the middle of winter. We've tamed our local universe so that we can communicate across thousands of miles, fly in the sky like the birds, travel fast along roadways in little metal gadgets we call cars. I look around with new eyes at all our species has done, and I am awestruck. In a very short time we have changed the face of the earth for the convenience of our lives. We've come to think of it as our world. We are the rulers, just like the dinosaurs were the clear rulers of the Jurassic epoch, and other life forms were the rulers of other epochs. The Jurassic age lasted for 250 million years, and an asteroid brought it to an end. Pretty much the whole world went silent then. Only tiny bits of life survived deep under the ground. And yet after millions of years, the earth recovered. 

This time we're heading for another extinction with phenomenal speed, and the causes are much less dramatic. In fact, with our landscapes full of the changes we've made and our focus on only on our own species, we have forgotten that we still depend upon a healthy planet to survive. It's been easy to forget, for the natural world has pretty much been covered up with the machinery of modern life. Where did we take that wrong turn? We are such smart creatures, and we've actually understood the importance of ecological balance for a long time. But now our industrial civilization has so completely taken our attention that when we see a rare natural landscape, we say "how pretty". 

At this point in our human history, we know about climate change, whether we choose to believe it or not. And even many of the folks who have been denying climate change are beginning to realize there must be something changing when looking at the violent weather episodes lately. The question is whether we can make a turn soon enough to save the planet from extinction yet again. We are a smart species. If we only began to put our intelligence to saving our homeland, surely we would find a way. But the issue has become confused with greed and power plays and distrust of each other. It would seem, since the people in power have different agendas, it is down to us ordinary folks to head up a movement toward healthy changes, ones that protect and preserve the earth that holds us and nurtures us still. On this Martin Luther King Day, let's remember to turn to love instead of hate, and to remember our love needs to go to the living world around us as well as to members of our own species. Make every day count. Don't lose hope. And gather with each other to give us the energy of companionship as we work for positive change that will affect us all.