Paving Paradise

You've likely heard that scientists have voted against defining a new epoch called the Anthropocene. Too soon, they say. They will change the name when they can look back in ten thousand years or so and find evidence of us in the rocks. They must have missed the news about plastic rocks. So according to them we're stuck in the Holocene which will be over when it's over. Of course, there isn't going to be anyone looking at those rocks when it's over. 

Never mind the rocks. Take a look around. Nothing you see or touch or breathe has escaped the careless influence of humanity. This is our scene and we've been making a mess. The scientists just won't use a new word if it doesn't fit their rules.

We poets will bend a word to make a point, and Anthropocene is too good a word to throw away. I think we need a new season of documentaries; call it The Anthropo-Scene. We should do episodes on the global temperature record, microplastics in unborn babies, land use, habitat destruction, population growth, climate tipping points, loss of biodiversity, and on and on and on, enough information to take us to the end of the epoch.

If you're going to yes-but me until I confess that I'm a woke, leftist, green, tree-hugging anthropophobe, it's OK, I understand. Calm down. I get it. We all have opinions. But what we need at this point is less opinion and more thoughtful appreciation of what we've got before it's gone. Let's stop paving paradise.