In my first year of studies 1983/84 I had to learn about the earth history and how our soil was formed. Right in this time there was a real possibility of a nuclear war. I was raising the following question to our lecturer and his answer made me very calm and took away my fears. My question was: What would happen to our earth in case of such a war, in which state will the planet be?
This was the answer:
Our earth – after such an atomic war – would not be in a state of needing millions of years to come back into life. Because for sure mosses and lichens would survive and most probably even insects might survive as well. Mankind will be extinguished, but never the whole life.
It sounds a bit crazy, but this answer took away all my fears. And why was it? At that time – and I still remember it well – I thought: If man is so stupid and starts the nuclear war, than he deserves it to leave for good. But what would not happen, man would not be able to extinguish all life on this planet. And that knowledge took all my fears away. But it did not stop me to live ecological as much as possible and to work for a better world in which justice and the human rights for everyone become reality.
So in the end this story is a story explaining the saying:
“Man needs the earth, but the earth does not need man!”
[Michael Röhm, Würzburg/Germany]
I liked this comment and it too gives me comfort that the earth will continue even if we don’t as human beings. I remember in the 80’s as I was becoming more aware of care for all on earth and earth itself, a friend told me that if we would not take care of all, in time the earth would shake its head and we would fly off like a bunch of fleas!
I would have liked to see the author of the blog.
Kathleen Kanet
Here we go …