Mass Extinction

 

I struck up a conversation

with a Chumash Native

American at a coffee house

in Asheville, North Carolina.

I came from St. Louis to

house sit for some friends

who were traveling in Europe

for the summer. The Native

American man from Southern

California came to visit with

his Cherokee brothers and

sisters in North Carolina.

He and I were discussing the

dire and worsening condition

of Earth’s environment caused

by mankind‘s negligence. Due

to pollution of land, sea and at-

mosphere, the denudation of

the rain forests, excessive fishing

of certain fish and mammal

species on land and at sea,

we are headed for Earth’s

Sixth Mass Extinction Event

in its 4-billion years of exis-

tence, he pointed out to me.

Mankind’s entire existence

on the Planet as a species

was at risk. Since our meeting

in the mid 1980s not nearly

enough changes have been

made to allay the devastating

greenhouse effects caused by

mankind’s overpopulation

and harmful advances.

Realizing back then what

happening to destroy our

life sustaining planet, my

Chumash friend recognized

the inevitable solution to

this dilemma—Mankind

will go the way of the

dinosaur; Planet Earth

will survive to begin anew.

-30-

Chris Hanch 3-18-2024