Have you ever noticed the protruding flowers and grass between the panels of pavement on the sidewalk? Dirt and sod often prevail to the very edge of an interstate until fully drowned by cement, and light leaks through my windows with the shades shut. Insects instigate entire ecosystems amidst cities; life pervades every crevice of industrialism that attempts to extinguish it. Even with the thought of future desolation - terrains we know now as fertile potentially bleak in the future - poppies growing out of creases in cement keep me sane and optimistic. Life on Earth has been lenient with humans; I recognize this; I thank this; I try not to be downcast with the thought of future barrenness. I try not to let that thought persuade me to slander mankind. I see no benefit in condemning ourselves as a damned and doomed race.

We must end our supposed ascendancy if we want to maintain the lineage of what nature has created, even if it will inevitably come to an end one day - by our own exploit, or by sun flares (either end would be natural, in my eyes). We do not need to sacrifice anything in giving up ascendancy. Humans’ natural self-interest is not a form of ascendancy. We can still plant gardens and eat the fruit. Using our resources, respecting them, tending to them, like a garden, even for our own gain, is not "ascendancy.” There is nothing perverse with using our surroundings to our advantage - a dog or lion or beetle would do the same. The flaw with humans, however, is that we coerce our surroundings and often use them past the point of symbiosis, a mutual benefit, and exploit something strictly for our own benefit. I believe that we, and the Earth, will gain much more by eliminating our need for power.

We must be as forgiving to ourselves as the Earth has been to us. We are animals too, a flawed species like any other, and not a mistake. When we restore the health of the Earth, I believe we will in part restore our own mental and physical health. I cannot see this as the end when I walk down the street and notice the daisies and green still trying to make concessions with the pavement. Earth is too amiable, too patient, to end now.