In between hikes/trying to disappear in what is left of what we used to call the wilderness (now under the influence of climate change= dead and dying trees, dry lakes and ponds, fires), I am working on the next eco-fiction book.

Latest:

Stem and Leaf Plots. Ten Eco-fiction Short Stories (includes Winter Girl).

Enjoy (and review!).

https://books2read.com/u/3n880K

Thank you and be well, stay sane.

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Thank you for reading my work and leaving reviews.

La Dee Da

I am a (depressed) professional field biologist/ecologist of many years. (How can I not be?) I have worked all over the U.S. (including some fantastic field years in Alaska) and in some parts of Europe. Nearly every place I have worked has become ecologically more degraded if not destroyed.

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The question is if the human primate can survive the environmental destruction being caused by--the human primate. If this isn't the definition of absurdity, insanity, I don't know what is.

The human primate has no capacity to observe itself as a SPECIES. There is little to no reference in the media to "the human primate". Only the sub-variations thereof within which each seems to fight with the other for resources, recognition, money. Unless the human primate develops the capacity to assess itself, its behavior, AS A SPECIES, there is no hope. Then again, it may be a trap the human primate can never spring itself from due to biology.

The human species is failing in developing respect for its own planet, thereby threatening it's own existence. Why? I posit it is because the human primate is the only species on earth aware of its own mortality so it is inevitable this would affect human behavior=basically we are all consciously/subconsciously in a constant state of freaking out over our own pending deaths not to mention our life spans are relatively short: we are in a trap--and when will it spring shut? We have no idea, but it is the main driver of human primate behavior. Awareness of our death. It is our burden to bear.

Consider as well the current state of human evolution: still primitive regardless how sophisticated our methods for altering our environment are. All of our actions to invent, exploit, etc. are motivated by a still infantile desire for self-gratification within our OWN lifespans, this drive so strong, it overrides any real concern regarding the catastrophic implications of climate change and destruction of earth's biodiversity. (As a species, our capacity to care about future generations is near nil).

Add in an economic system that depends on narcissism, consumption, individualism, dovetailing into the biological realities of the human primate (sex, violence, and aging), and perhaps the pathetic course of the human primate as a species is inevitable. (Case in point: the incoming President of the United States).

Let's make one thing clear. We are not the "most intelligent species on earth" unless "intelligence" is defined as the capacity to destroy an entire planet. This is stupidity and arrogance, not intelligence.

We should be talking about these things but instead we careen blindly to get to the sale at Walmart to get that big flat screen T.V. We watch news about other people dying, and down that 3rd martini, anxiety driving us all mad, the most "civilized species on earth". So goes the "modern" human primate.