Weather Report

 I have a friend who roots for the weather. When she sees sinkholes open up, she applauds. In the fight between man and nature, she is not shy about her rooting interest. Earthquakes, tsunamis, all manner of devastation has her on the edge of her seat. 

That's because she has looked at the scales and figured out who is eventually going to win this game. She's a fan of the home team: Planet Earth. Extinction? Don't bet on it. Unless you're talking the long game. The cockroaches will be here. Llamas, bears and elephants are likely to endure through climate change. The species to which we all belong? Not as much. Human beings are pretty fragile, having evolved into creatures dependent on Google to take them to the nearest coffee shop. A lot of good those opposable thumbs are going to be when the earth's surface temperature rises by ten degrees. That's why Elon Musk, noted for his attempts to save the planet, is also hedging his bets by planning to flee the planet for another nearby ball of rock, one that is currently only sullied by a few dozen wandering robots and assorted other space junk. 

The past eight years have been the warmest since we bothered to start writing things like that down. So go ahead and drop another ten degrees on top of that and pretty soon the mess we are currently in is not discussed in terms of "warm" and "cool." It will be hot. Ridiculous hot. Extinction level hot. Not for the aforementioned Llamas and elephants and bears. For people. Soylent Green won't save us. Well, maybe it will, until we run out of the main ingredient. I am guessing that Elon Musk already has a side hustle warming up in the wings to bring us all the Soylent we can keep down. 

There is something to be said for lining up behind Nature on this one. Once mankind has been eliminated, then it seems likely that the earth will heal itself, after all the ravages our short time has laid upon it. The elephants are just waiting us out. It would be completely wrong if we somehow managed to drive them into extinction before they had a chance to herd across the savannah without fear of being eliminated for their tusks. 

Still, I can't help but take a little softer approach from my friend. Even she acknowledges that having offspring makes simply giving up on humans a tough sell. I have a vested interest in keeping the planet habitable long enough for my son to inherit the bits and places we can spare from the onslaught. A week ago, he experienced a power outage brought about by two trees that gave up their roots in the midst of a pouring rain. No Internet. No video games. No phone chargers. 

The llamas, bears and elephants remained unfazed.