We were never close either physically or emotionally. But I have thought about you often over the years as I sought to figure out where I stand in the universe, and what it all means. Grandparents have been doing this for eons but until lately it's nothing about which I've thought.
The future is what you were for – well, at least one of the things. Of course, you were also for loving and cherishing and having fun with - if and when you'd let us. But for the most part, evolution is an engine that cranks out grandchildren in order to continue life. You are proof that life is still going on, that it endures beyond a parent's own kids, and that perhaps a memory of our presence here on the planet exists. Grandkids invent the future and carry tokens of the past -- maybe even of grandparents.
But the reason you deserve a special note now is that I deeply fear for your future - not mine since I'll soon be out of the picture. But the world today is in serious trouble. Maybe grandparents have been saying that for eons, too. Except I don't believe the environmental problems facing the planet have ever been so serious or so advanced, at least while people have been on it. My generation should issue an apology for this since we've passed them along to you. Not just my generation, but also a few generations before mine, we started up and maintained some processes that are quickly going to eat up your future. Some legacy!
I know there are voices urging action to avert these disasters, schemes for conservation and wiser use of resources. Noble and morally imperative - on the face of it. But the reason for my concerns is that I feel it's too late for that.
"The Vanishing Face of Gaia" by James Lovelock was instrumental in establishing my position today. He explains that the planet is a complex system of interdependent forces and processes. Although earth has many fail-safe systems in case one or two processes get broken, it has one ultimate solution for anything that threatens to kill the planet. It kills its enemies. Just as white blood cells roam the bloodstream looking for foreign invaders, the earth itself kills off whatever elements would terminate life. I'm talking about life in essence, not any one particular form of life. Forms of life, such as humanity, are ultimately dispensable in favor of life itself.
The processes that are taking place right now, and have been for the past several years, are inexorable. The planet is shutting down and killing off whatever doesn't constitute essential life. It's not yet like a switch that quickly shuts off. Because it takes more time than that, but really not all that much more. Floods, storms, hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes and the whole panoply of scary things that humans can't do much about, are nature's way of reducing life to the essences. It doesn't know anything about our dreams, our imagination, our aspiration. It just knows that when greenhouse gasses get to a certain point, temperatures have got to rise. And when temps rise, things that have evolved or adapted to a certain range of temperatures can't take it anymore and they die -- they burn up. Glaciers break off and add to the total water of the oceans, which overwhelms beaches, floods coastal cities, drenches deserts, etc. Forces that used to keep pests in check can no longer keep up with the effects of enhanced breeding conditions that the pests acquire.
By now, of course, you know all of this -- and more. I just want you to know that I've seen it too. And there's nothing I can do about it. Whatever could have been done to avert this had to have been started a long time ago, maybe even before my time.
The reason so few people were alarmed about the great shutdown of the earth is that it happens at a pace far different from what people are used to. If it takes a lot longer to turn around a battleship than it does a motorcycle, imagine how slowly basic changes happen on a planetary scale. But insight is the ability to extrapolate from present evidence to conclusions that may not be obvious at the moment. Insightful observers have explained the processes that are going on. But the populace at large, and the politicians who lead them, do not have such insight, nor much imagination. And so nothing got done. And the switch got thrown.
I still harbor some flicker of hope that the human imagination that you embody, might come up with some kind of solution. (Lovelock suggests that small enclaves could gather in isolated safer areas and start human society over again. Not sure how that's going to work out, or how pleasant it will be, but good luck.) Perhaps earth has had enough time to evolve a brain for itself that can discover ways to avert the coming disaster. If anyone, or any one generation, can do it, it's you and yours.
Again, sorry for the mess.
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