michaelm@3comvax.UUCP (Michael McNeil) (10/08/85)
[line eater fodder.] > Ray of Rochester states that humans are capable of doing more > good for the planet and each other than any other race. > > > How does one possibly help a planet? > > I am nonplussed. > > From: kowack@ccvaxa.UUCP I'll give just one example. (It's an example that Ray Frank might not care for.) The help I'm talking about involves saving much of the *life* on Earth, not the planet itself, as Earth will continue along her ponderous course -- with or without the life aboard her. It may seem odd to talk about saving living things from extinction, when humans are killing off species at a high rate. Nevertheless, the opportunity may arrive when we can provide redress for life. There is now strong evidence that 60 million or so years ago an extraterrestrial object, thought to be a small asteroid or comet, struck the Earth and *laid her waste*. Although some still argue that the sudden demise of *three-quarters of all species alive* at the time was mere coincidence, to many the coincidence seems entirely too forced, and the actual impact of the alien object seems to be well established by evidence from all over the world. It was hypothesizing about the effects of this cometary invader on the known extinctions which led to the recent "nuclear winter" theory regarding the cataclysmic effects of a *nuclear* holocaust. An asteroid or comet could well come again. Smaller impacts, which would occur much more frequently, might not do as much damage but could still be massively catastrophic to human society and much of the rest of life. We can see these bodies floating around us -- some come very near the Earth. Periodic impacts are inevitable. There is not much incentive for living things to adapt themselves to extremely rare but totally catastrophic events. The events occur as smashing disasters -- but then, after a period of recovery, the sun shines again, the rain falls, life grows, and the equipment needed to survive during the catastrophe becomes so much excess baggage, which is not only superfluous but actually *must* be discarded in order to compete successfully with other, less encumbered species. It's now thought that the mass extinction some 60 million years ago which is associated with the asteroidal/cometary impact destroyed every living animal species weighing more than some 10 kilograms (22 pounds). If such an impact occurs again, life on Earth is no better prepared biologically, and would die just as mightily. However, now there is us. *Alone* among all life on Earth (at least as far as taking any action is concerned), we humans are capable of recognizing what an asteroid is, we alone are capable of locating the potentially troublesome objects, and we alone are capable of going out there and nudging the offending bodies aside, years before any actual collision with the Earth could take place. So, if we can manage to avoid creating *our own* "nuclear winter," and if we learn to preserve and don't continue to destroy the life that the Earth now has, we may someday perform a service for life far greater than any destructive capabilities we have carelessly exercised. It is a new *constructive* capability, which life has never before possessed, that humans bring to life on Earth -- the ability to detect, predict, and circumvent very rare disasters. -- Michael McNeil 3Com Corporation "All disclaimers including this one apply" (415) 960-9367 ..!ucbvax!hplabs!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm Life, even cellular life, may exist out yonder in the dark. But high or low in nature, it will not wear the shape of man. That shape is the evolutionary product of a strange, long wandering through the attics of the forest roof, and so great are the chances of failure, that nothing precisely and identically human is likely ever to come that way again. Loren Eiseley, *The Immense Journey*, 1946