Our extinction.

Writers are always telling me that we must all be hopeful. Are you fucking kidding me.

The environment was destroyed a long time ago.

There is nothing left to save.

I have given up. On humanity. We are, in fact,  Australopithecines. Homo sapiens are so smart, so brilliant, so greedy, so murderous, so caste-dependent, so arrogant, so self-righteous that we are the only species in history who has ever set a river on fire.

This ditty will be another flame that dies. The New York Times always kicks me into the street whenever I get focused. But I do not write for gatekeepers. Some things are more important than keeping the gates safe from interlopers. I was going to write about the long history of tree spiking, but I will restrain myself.

So, I guess I do write for gatekeepers.

Perhaps, I am being “uncivil” again. Only the New York Times knows for sure. There are no trees in Manhattan.

That we didn’t put there. Here’s how smart Homo sapiens are. First we knock down all the trees. Then, we build. Then, we plant a few pretty trees. Sparsely. Tastefully. Next to the road. Go ahead, build a fucking fountain. Since I am constantly fighting with gatekeepers, I get to say fucking. Fucked. And fucked again.

How big is a railroad spike. I have never even seen a fucking railroad spike so how the fuck would I know. A standard railroad tie is nine inches wide and seven inches tall. However, rails are not all identical because of milling and may vary in size, up to 12 inches wide and nine inches tall. The gap between two rails is typically 12 inches so that the distance from the center of one rail to the center of the adjacent rail is approximately 21 inches. A spike in a tree creates a wound. And people get decapitated. Because accidents happen. People who would spike a tree are the bad people. People who would bulldoze a thousand trees are the good people. It’s okay. We have most things in the contemporary world ass-backwards. Because most of us are the stupid Homo sapeins. A single tree is worth far more than a dozen Homo sapiens who work in a mill.

Spiking trees is a crime, and personally, I would never, ever do such a terrible thing. I have never broken a single law in my entire life. Stealing cars is not a crime. It’s what you do when you have no money. You can’t spike all the trees. Or maybe you can. But Cassandra’s despair is relevant.

“The Hidden Life of Trees” by Peter Wohlleben has shaken me. I do not know how you come away from such relentless information, and find one shred of hope. They say the sky is falling but it already fell. Our cultural telescopes observe light from the past. Here and now, the climate is toxic. I live in Appalachia, and used to be inundated with birds. We made our little village a bird sanctuary.

Applause for us. Sanctuary or bulldozer. It’s about choices.

The bulldozer won. Greed always wins. 200 wolves were recently shot. Sorry. If I have to go with either a cow or a wolf, I go with the wolf. Mother can no longer support our weight. We’re dying from poisons. We are suicidal. I regret that I will not live long enough to see this vicious species go extinct.