Writing the End of the Earth
My writers group is working on an anthology with several stories and poems about the end of the Earth. Each pictures a devastated Earth devoid of life. So many stories and movies are like this. Would the end of humanity bring a lifeless Earth? What a bunch of human-centered rubbish!
Long ago I saw a science documentary in some science class where plots had been set out and irradiated with gamma rays to simulate nuclear fallout. Were they lifeless after years of this bombardment? No. The mammals and amphibians died away. Reptiles and plants survived. If the plants survived, the insects survived.
A college course dropped the information that blue green algae, now called cyanobacteria, can survive the radiation, but not the heat of an atomic explosion. It would begin to carpet everything about five miles from such an explosion given a bit of rain.
In the book “Weeds” the aftermath of the Blitz in London is described. In the midst of and over the rubble grew the weeds. They were lush. Weeds need insects to pollinate them.
Even in New York City trees and other plants take root in and on the skyscrapers.
In discussing the end of the dinosaurs reference is made to a huge meteor. It devastated life on Earth for a time. Not everything died. Small mammals, birds, insects and plants survived to repopulate and cover the Earth.
One theory tells of an asteroid striking the Earth knocking out a chunk to form the moon. If something as massive as an asteroid can strike the Earth and leave life to repopulate, how can man’s puny weapons hope to compete?
Writing about a devastated Earth devoid of life may sound good. It may look good in movies. But it is human-centered rubbish.
Nothing man can do can totally destroy life on Earth. Mankind, yes. Life, no.
Perhaps a better description of Earth’s ending is as a jungle of triumphant weeds. And, of course, the insects shall rule!
Long ago I saw a science documentary in some science class where plots had been set out and irradiated with gamma rays to simulate nuclear fallout. Were they lifeless after years of this bombardment? No. The mammals and amphibians died away. Reptiles and plants survived. If the plants survived, the insects survived.
A college course dropped the information that blue green algae, now called cyanobacteria, can survive the radiation, but not the heat of an atomic explosion. It would begin to carpet everything about five miles from such an explosion given a bit of rain.
In the book “Weeds” the aftermath of the Blitz in London is described. In the midst of and over the rubble grew the weeds. They were lush. Weeds need insects to pollinate them.
Even in New York City trees and other plants take root in and on the skyscrapers.
In discussing the end of the dinosaurs reference is made to a huge meteor. It devastated life on Earth for a time. Not everything died. Small mammals, birds, insects and plants survived to repopulate and cover the Earth.
One theory tells of an asteroid striking the Earth knocking out a chunk to form the moon. If something as massive as an asteroid can strike the Earth and leave life to repopulate, how can man’s puny weapons hope to compete?
Writing about a devastated Earth devoid of life may sound good. It may look good in movies. But it is human-centered rubbish.
Nothing man can do can totally destroy life on Earth. Mankind, yes. Life, no.
Perhaps a better description of Earth’s ending is as a jungle of triumphant weeds. And, of course, the insects shall rule!
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