Earth’s atmosphere, like it exists, both as a profoundly statistical anomaly, and as what constitutes human life. Human activity is upsetting that natural balance, but there is hope — and everyone needs to be involved.
That’s what the world’s leading voices in climate science, art and activism told us in the first session of the RE: Wired greencome together to tell the same basic story: We are fortunate to exist, and we are messing with it, but all is not lost.
The Earth existed for billions of years and experienced many mass extinction events before modern humans appeared. That’s according to Kenneth Lacovara, a paleontologist at Rowan University who has recovered some of the largest dinosaur skeletons on the planet. Humans account for only about 0.006% of Earth’s history, while human civilization exists only a small part of it. But we can learn from a time before we existed.
Lacovara said: “The past is real. “We can touch it, we can pick it up, we can break it apart and study it. You can put it in a museum for everyone to see.” According to Lacovara, the conditions that led to human evolution and human civilization were not inevitable.
“If you take the time to learn the language of the rocks, they will learn to whisper to you. And around the world, they say the same thing: “It doesn’t have to be,” he said. “We got lucky.”
Previous mass extinctions were caused by volcanoes and asteroids. This time, it’s different. “We are asteroids now,” Lacovara said. “But we don’t have to. There is still time to avoid the worst of it. “
Camille SeamanA photographer known for taking photographs from the Arctic and Antarctic regions that document the ways in which the Earth’s environment is changing, Lacovara said.
“My grandfather thought it was very important for us as grandchildren to know what it’s like to be a good human being,” Seaman said. “Before he died, he said to me: ‘You have created billions of years. You were born in this time, this time, and there is no one like you. You have survived slavery, genocide and disease. Your job is to figure out what you can do that no one else can and do it. ‘”
Seaman saw her working on those terms.
“I understand that my job, as an artist, is to build more compassion, empathy, and understanding of our world and all of the people we share it with. ,” she said. “But most importantly, my job as an artist is to inspire you.”
