Michael Clay

Tons of boring dialogue. Could not stay awake.

Fairly typical entertainment piece maybe for general audiences. Not so much for those with an in-depth understanding of the dilemma we are really in. My critique has to do with the last 10 minutes of the series. The conclusion that we are destroying the planet at a far greater rate than ever in the last 500 million years by listing the ways we are doing so is apt (the writers could have included the chemical and nuclear poisoning of the planet too). But the next statement that all is not lost and we have the intelligence and knowledge to control, and maybe even reverse this damage, is foolish pie-in-the-sky nonsense. Everyone on earth wants food, clean water, air conditioned housing, clothing, medicine, and a million other things. People in poorer countries want these even more. They, and their leadership, don’t care about environmental issues. Do you think people in first world countries are going to give up these things either? All of this worldwide demand for a comfortable lifestyle is not going away. We are poisoning ourselves out of existence. But don’t apologize for it. Like the Mayflies, perhaps we, the hominid species, are supposed to be here for just a short period on the evolutionary timeline. Unless you want to return to a hunter- gatherer lifestyle our ancestors lived 200,000 years ago, enjoy your exploitation of earth’s resources and don’t moralize. When we are gone maybe the insects will become the dominant dynasty.