Big Time Ego

When searching for a world map I found a National Geographic rendition of the Pacific ocean floor. I took a closer look at the mountains and islands below the water's surface. A recent minor earthquake twenty miles away and twenty miles deep reminded me that hundreds of quakes are registered daily. The earth's skin is under careful surveillance because it is constantly moving, creating havoc in isolated places all over the world. I am aware of the earth and my relation to it.
Maybe.
Have I put it in proper context? The earth is more than a ball of rock circling the sun. A happy and stable place to live to be sure, however, the earth is a moving – in a way, breathing – part of a complete living habitat. Do we, this superior mammal species, who believes we can conquer every problem with technology, stop and look at the action beneath our feet? In the sense of expelling, the earth's skin does breathe. It emits hot plasma in thin places. The Pacific ocean floor is riddled with volcanic cones that release heat from the molten interior. The ocean floor is pulling apart at the rate of 4 inches a year as it piles up molten rocks to become exotic islands. Edges of land breaks in the earth's crust are constantly on the move, crushing against continents or diving under others. The pressure is always there. Always pushing. Always moving, until it crunches big time, to be recorded on seismographic instruments in laboratories around the world.
Global warming is a fact. But is the human race completely at fault? Our collective ego believes we could stop the world. While we are destroying the ozone layer (which will ultimately kill us with cancer), I wonder if our technology really is the cause of global warming. Could this warming trend be a normal progression of natural evolution? The molten lava is boiling and pushing to be released. How much does that warm the ocean? What effect does that have on our atmosphere? Especially on the currents that plague our shores with capricious weather from season to season.
Scientists are showing that animal species, humans in particular, are but a small part of the natural world. Extinction is a matter of historical evidence and Homo sapiens will probably evolve out of the picture, but not any time soon. Unless another eruption like Karakatau in 1883 occurs or the tsunami near Sumatra in 2004 throws the earth into another wobble, perhaps one that gravity cannot correct. But with little crustal adjustments taking place in Alaska, Iran, Walla Walla, and hundreds of other places, a major catastrophe is not likely for a few centuries. The dinosaurs luxuriated on earth for 150 million years and they had very small brains! Think what can be done with brains the size of ours!
Naomi Sherer