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The other day we heard two people talking intelligently about the possibility that the earth is in its sixth great period of extinction. Someone’s been waiting a long time for this sequel. The last great extinction—made famous by the dinosaurs—was about 65 million years ago. That’s almost how long we feel we’ve been waiting for the next movie in the Lethal Weapon franchise. But putting aside our admittedly minor troubles to think about the topic at hand… But, no, let us just add that we don’t really know if we could enjoy another Lethal Weapon movie given all that’s happened in the world since the last one (1998), or at least, we don’t see how it could live up to our expectations. And perhaps we are different now. But, again, let us put such things to the side. We are talking about extinction here, life and death. (Of course, the Lethal Weapon movies always feature much death, but—no, no—put that aside.)

These people we heard talking were troubled that humanity may be causing the current spate of species-death. Perhaps we love death. Perhaps we are carelessly driven by our teeming lusts and we sow death as an unconsidered side-effect. But either way, tsk tsk.

While listening to those two people, The Stoneslide Corrective couldn’t help but think that life has clung to this planet for billions of years, through five preceding great extinctions, in fact. We humans may exert our ultimate efforts to burn, strafe, destroy, sow with chemically altered salt, bury, and/or trash, and something will live on, even if it’s only a sea of purple goo and the insects that can raft on that swell. Life will on.

What these people we heard talking were really worried about when they talked about extinction was preserving the delicate architecture of biosystems that make possible the continuation of our own species. They’re worried about the framework that cradles the destroyer, you might say. Or, to be plainer, they’re worried about their own extinction. When environmentalists mewl about saving the dolphins, they’re really saying, save me. [Read more…]