In 1989, Bill McKibben wrote, “I believe that we are at the end of nature.” Then he clarified: “By this I do not mean the end of the world. The rain will still fall, and the sun will still shine. When I say ‘nature,’ I mean a certain set of human ideas about the world and our place in it.” An active volcano provides as good an opportunity as any to consider “our place” and what it means to see “Nature” not as an object but as a subject, as something (someone) acting in time. The lava moves, and it’s not because of us.
