Take a lesson from honey bees. They commune and toil and pay total fealty to their queen. And when threatened, they swarm. And they are dying for reasons as yet unknown. When the bees are gone, we are gone. They cannot alter their behavior. They are not products of their environment, but victims.

Humans impact the environment just by virtue of existing. Toxic emissions can and should be regulated. But the most damaging impact to the planet is us. We cannot seem to grasp the concept of population control. Hell, we can’t even keep a lid on animal over- population. As the higher evolved of the species we act irresponsibly in many ways for which we will ultimately pay with extinction.

Ironically, the people who had the greatest love and respect for the planet, the American Indians, were vilified and driven to near eradication by the advancing white settlers. Once the Indian problem was solved, we set about making our mark on everything and leaving behind a trail of waste and destruction. The kind of oppression the settlers fled England to escape was visited on the indigenous populations here.

The one act each human can regulate and take absolute responsibility for is the act of procreation. It is a strong biological drive hard wired into us, but contrary to determinism, we have free will. And with that comes free thinking and forethought. And with that comes the ability to impact the effects of global warming by making one less human.

I understand the fear of being overrun by alien hordes. Anything alien to us is both frightening and evocative of a defensive posture. This is what currently plays into the urgency for border sealing and wall building. Our troublesome southern neighbors. Realizing the riches to be had in the land to the north, they cross over to find hard labor. The wages earned go directly home to their waiting families. There was never a desire to assimilate… but they did have a desire: make the north country their own. To achieve that end, they set about overwhelming the land with greater numbers and they have never wavered from that purpose. By remaining self indulgent and petulant, they hasten the demise of what they are so determined to possess.

We set about making a more perfect union by being perfectly misogynistic and brutal. Karma is about the work of equalization and we are seeing it play out in real time as the oceans and the temperatures rise and our time to prevail falls.