September 2007
Columns
Editorial comment
nsettling mortality. Many of you have seen the film of the elephants mulling over the bones of a long-dead elephant, almost in a strange, mournful fashion, showing that they recognize their own mortality, just as we do.
Most of us who have been schooled in geology and the earth sciences know that our existence as a species might also be temporary. We see the fossils of many creatures that once roamed the Earth by the millions, but are now long gone. What caused these many mass extinctions that wiped out upwards of 50% to 95% of all the species of life on Earth? Was it an asteroid collision? A super-earthquake? Climate change?
When it comes to interfering with Nature, folks generally divide into two camps: Do Something or Do Nothing. I’m slightly in the middle, but clearly leaning toward the Do Something camp.
