Kevin's Watch

Are we an abberation?
What's kinda sad is humanity's failure to find a reason for this planet's existence. As an example, what if Earth's sole purpose in the universe is simply to produce water - no more, no less! This shouldn't mean that humanity is a bi-product, just one of a multi-symbionce.
No, we aren't an abberation!
What's comical is when scientists say things like, "this fragile planet". As if humanity is capable of it's destruction. Earth abides. We only have the capability to destroy ourselves, not the planet Earth.

It's a position I have previously taken, that we would render the planet uninhabitable for ourselves long before we would damage it to a point beyond which life would not survive ... but alas I am no longer so sure. What do other people think?

I like maps. When I look at a map of the world I see a jigsaw puzzle. And it doesn't take scissors and paste to see the shapes slide neatly into place - the south and north Americas and Africa are the most obvious pieces to fit back together. Europe and Greenland take a bit more imagination, (there are unique rock structures that have can only be found on the south-east coast of Greenland and north-western coastal regions of Scotland)

Australia is puzzling. It is shaped somewhat like Africa but flipped over on it's side. Which may have something to do with the Earth's ability to change it's electromagnetic polarity, every x amount of millenia - (but don't quote me on this as they are just the broadstrokes).

Japan and New Zealand are closely related in shape. And Madagascar, at least its positioning to the greater land mass. Although Japan appears to be continually disintegrating into smaller and smaller islands that are drifting eastward.

I find it easy to think of the Earth as no bigger than the Moon, at one time. It's purpose of manufacturing water increased it's size gradually over millions and millions of years, thinning out and stretching the crust, expanding the rivers into ever greater and greater lakes and seas, separating the land into the continents.
But for what purpos is this manufacturing of H2O ... that, is the exiting part!

Nobody can deny, water is special - and strange in many ways, but what this particular purpose of it's production pertain to?

I've absolutely no idea, dude. I'm simply not that brainy.

Although, in my experience, I'd hazard a guess that breathing oxygen is the next step to breathing nitrogen. Like a fish out of water ...

peter wrote:It's a position I have previously taken, that we would render the planet uninhabitable for ourselves long before we would damage it to a point beyond which life would not survive ... but alas I am no longer so sure. What do other people think?

I think the pigeons, the cockroaches, and the water bears will all outlast us. Yes, the Earth will still be here long after we are gone. That's my opinion.

Although it (and they) might look somewhat different...

--A

There is always something beautiful about an urban setting being reclaimed by nature. Tha Prom in Vietnam is the best example with its huge tree roots wrapped around the buildings and it's jungle setting, but even the weeds prizing apart the tarmac and flagstones in the work carpark do it for me: I somehow see it as a sign of hope. Weird.

Well, certainly if we just left it all alone, it would recover quite cheerfully. (Chernobyl is a good example.) But we won't of course, unless left with no other choice.

--A

But in the meantime it might turn it's cold eye on us and then we'll be in trouble.

That's funny. I've always found such sights to be very sad. Someone had a vision. They spent a significant amount of time and money making it a reality. It was their livelihood, or their home, possibly for their family or others. Now it's literally falling to pieces, and you might not even be able to find anyone who can tell you what or whose it was.

Yeah. I can see it from the "Look on my works, ye mighty" angle. And I can also see it from the Circle of Life angle.

I'm from New England, where old stone walls are ubiquitous, and you can find old stone foundations walking through the woods. I admit I like their character; something about their aged reclamation speaks to me. If I had to put a finger on it, to me it says "someone made this, and after all this time, it's still here."

Agreed Fist, but beauty and sadness do not preclude each other, and hope can be found in the oddest of places.

And again - that's the point WF isn't it; when that little shoot pushes up betweeen the paving-stones it also is saying "Hey - don't forget me; I'm still here you know."

I've never noticed, but it seems I have two categories for these things. I'm in the same neck of the woods as you, wf. My wife and I hike several hundred miles per year in the local Shawangunk and Catskill mountains, and often see the remains of the old stone structures. For some reason, I like them. Maybe the look of antiquity (although some things are even less than a hundred years old). Maybe I like the stone.

The newer things bother me a lot, though. Parking lots with the grass growing through. Buildings that were things like stores or mechanic shops. I'm definitely glad nature is taking back things that might not have been all that attractive in the first place. But while they're still so visible, they just look like failed dreams and poverty.

Ah.

What has been reclaimed by the wilderness has been built by man but then abandoned. What was abandoned long ago is nostalgic; what was abandoned recently speaks of neglect or failure.

Surely the first must preceed the second WF?

wayfriend wrote:Yeah. I can see it from the "Look on my works, ye mighty" angle.

I think they're sort of the same angle really.

--A

peter wrote:Surely the first must preceed the second WF?

Yes. But, I think as FNF says, ones attitude towards it can change.

No, Avatar, I think there are different angles to it. Everything has two sides. In this case, on one side you can see the works of man brought low, and on the other you can see the nature's effort to keep the world in balance. And on another side, you can revere what remains as evidence of past glory.

This came up on CNN today, and I thought it was apropos. Pictures from Chernobyl as it is found today. I think it brings forward all of those angles I speak of, although maybe more to some people than others.

Alien dreamscapes: The eerie beauty of abandoned Soviet spaces

I think part of natures attempt to balance things is bringing low the works of man. I've always loved that line from Ozymandias, to me it's a comment on the hubris of man.

The epitaph of every civilisation could be "we thought we were here forever, but we were wrong."

--A