THE DAY THE DINOSAURS DIED

Paul in Florida sent us a link to a freely accessible, online The New Yorker article about an important new fossil excavation site in the northcentral US. The site is producing large numbers of fossils of organisms killed and preserved during the first hours of planetary destruction caused by an asteroid hitting the Earth 66 million years ago. That collision is known as the Chicxulub Impact, because ground zero for the hit was the ocean near where today the Maya town of Chicxulub exists, on the Yucatan's northwestern coast, north of Mérida.

The impact caused such environmental destruction that about 75% of all the planet's species went extinct, and more than 99.9999% of all the Earth's individual living organisms perished. In other words, Life on Earth almost ceased to exist.

This was such a mind-boggling event that I've been thinking about it this week. What is the Chicxulub Impact's teaching, I've been wondering? That question is to be expected of someone for whom "Nature is Bible," and the Chicxulub Impact was very much a natural event.

A good beginning point for thinking about the Chicxulub Impact is to let it really sink in that such events -- even more destructive ones -- are just as likely to happen today as millions of years ago. In fact, five major mass extinctions are recognized as having taken place on Earth, with the Chixculub Impact being the most recent one and not necessarily the most catastrophic. You might enjoy browsing the Geological Time Scale I've put together emphasizing and describing each major mass extinction in the context of evolving life, online at http://www.backyardnature.net/g/geo-time.htm

For me, the first teaching that came to mind was that the Creative Impulse responsible for the Universe is clearly not very concerned about the comfort and welfare of Its individual created beings, of which the Impact killed more than 99.9999% of us. It was kinder at the species level, causing only 75% extinction, since it takes only one surviving individual of such organisms as bacteria and fungi to continue the species, or two if two sexes are involved. And it's worth considering these numbers with the other number that more than 90% of all species ever evolved on Earth today are extinct.

From this teaching it's clear that we humans are on our own. No deity in the sky will shepherd us toward safety from plummeting astroids, or ourselves.

At this point in thinking about the Chixculub Impact's teaching and its implications, I couldn't overlook that right now Earth's Mass Extinction #6 is taking place, the first one caused by humans. On our Geological Time Scale page, data is referred to indicating that today the rate of human-caused extinction is occurring as much as 120,000 times faster than the background rate of extinction during all the Earth's biological history.

Knowing that this mass extinction is taking place right now almost sends me running through the streets screaming that we humans need to change our way of doing things.

But, human minds are a varied bunch and I know that the streets are populated by many minds unable or unwilling to accept the Chixculub Impact teaching I understand. For example, last week a fellow in Guatemala, remarking on the awesome destruction of the Petén's forests in recent years, told me that it's all exactly as the Bible predicts, so there's nothing we can or should do about it. Many others I know see only the economic effects of ending large-scale logging, mining, agrochemical use, etc., and for them that's reason enough for society to continue as it is. Plus there are enough of those who say it's all just false news, to democratically elect a president encouraging that opinion.

I regard these powerful subgroups of thought as nothing less than well defined species of mentality different from my own species. They're species in the sense that there's little or no exchange of genetic/mental information among them. As time passes, each group consolidates its beliefs, because its beliefs serve well within its own mental context, as long as there's still forest to cut, ore to mine, fields to spray, etc.

In Nature, different species competing for resources in the same place either change so that they begin cooperating in a sustainable fashion, or one species outcompetes the others and thus gets rid of them, or the stronger simply kill off the weaker.

Thinking, feeling people tend toward the sustainable cooperation option. However, Nature has put humanity in an interesting situation by giving those who want to keep things going as they are, a "trump" card. That card that trumps everything is the fact that when something is destroyed, it's gone for good, but when something is conserved, it still stands a good chance of being destroyed by overwhelming, never-going-away numbers of destroyers.

Therefore, I see this as a war between different species of mindsets, and from the beginning the attackers have the advantage over those trying to protect what's left.

If one is quixotic enough to want to fight for Life on Earth, anyway, how does one fight? In my own life, I can't think of any better response than to live as low-impact a life as I can, produce my nature-education website, and send out these Newsletters.

I regard these as piddling responses and wish I could do better. In fact, here's a request:

If anyone out there within busing or boating distance of where I am now can conceive of a more effectively biosphere-saving use for me, please let me know. Keep in mind that I'm a surprisingly healthy 71-year-old, but my nervous system can't function around boom-boom music and dogs barking during the night. I can live happily with no electricity, plumbing, and all the rest, though I need to be within walking or biking distance of a food-buying place. I pay my own expenses.