The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

Save the Humans

Everything happens for a reason, so what I’m about to tell you may upset you: we’re all going to die someday, and don’t be surprised – even though we are dead – to see a new species inherit the earth after we’re gone.That’s life.Sixty-five million years ago, a major asteroid impact killed 85 percent of all life on this planet, making way for us. They died so we could eventually evolve and become the radical free thinkers we are now.I wonder then, with all the good that has come from extinction, why some people cry over the death of a few endangered pandas?You don’t see them crying about the death of millions of dinosaurs, do you?Other than music, great food and filling your head with things you typically might not think about, I love nothing more than the idea that the human race has a solution for everything.We have treatments for diseases we cannot pronounce, the ability to end world hunger and the skill to keep almost-extinct animals living.Most of which are all good and fine, but when did the human race start thinking we’re god? What gives us any right to dictate which species can live and which can die?We are the worst thing to happen to this planet – we are a polluting, consuming cancer and sucking the life out of everything for our own benefit — and we have the audacity to think we can make everything better?It’s almost funny to imagine a dialogue between a know-it-all human and whoever is pulling the strings:Human: “Hi, I’m a human and I have a solution for everything.”Puppet master: “Um, no you don’t.”Can you imagine what an activist in the Cretaceous period, protesting the extinction of 85 percent of all life, would look like and how ridiculous they would sound? Like all their protesting and fundraising could stop an asteroid.Not likely.But perhaps the funniest part about that whole scene is the sad truth behind it: if not for that mass extinction we would not be here.Can you imagine walking to class while looking out for a Velociraptor? Try doing that and texting at the same time and you’re dinner, pal!Extinction is nature’s way of clearing house and making room for newer species. Sure, we have helped this process by killing some off, but hey, that’s Darwinism.The best thing we can do is accept the fact that some things have to be out of our hands.So next time you shed a tear for a panda, or a pacific pocket mouse, shed one for Mr. T-Rex and his brothers, too. You should thank them for making room for you, because someday we will gone be just like them.

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Save the Humans