Mankind is a danger to life, Earth, and the survival of humanity

We are living in an age of mass extinction of species on a scale not seen since the wiping out of the dinosaurs.

The only difference is that while the death of the dinosaurs may have been caused by a cosmic event 65 million years ago, we are responsible for the destruction of life today.

I have just started reading the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) report (Living Planet Report 2016: Risk and resilience in a new era) and I am saddened by our collective stupidity as humanity.

We are polluting, shooting, and eating through the most precious commodity in the cosmos: life itself.

Between 1970 and 2012, that is just 42 years, the population of mammals had come down by 58 per cent.

That of fresh water species — which we are either polluting or draining to make way for us — is down by a disastrous 81 per cent.

WWF says if we continue at this pace, by 2020, we will have lost 67 per cent of plants and animals.

How are we doing this? We are taking over the homes of other species by draining swamps (Donald Trump style?), clearing forests, and burning grasslands to make way for our own settlements or other commercial activities.

We might think that the death of a vole, a worm, or a swan is no big deal and should not stand in the way of “development”, but by destroying life, by mucking about with biodiversity, we gamble with our own survival.

When it comes to the use of planetary resources, humanity is behaving like a herd of cows.

When they settle down to eat, cows lose all sense of time and environment: whether it starts raining or the sun goes down, they just want to eat and eat.

We are over-exploiting the species we eat and use and generally behaving as if nature is inexhaustible and indestructible.

Worse is wildlife crime, which WWF says is at its worst level in 50 years of efforts to conserve our planet and its bounty.

A FORM OF GRAFT

The rhino, elephant, and tiger are endangered because folks in the East believe that parts of the animals' bodies provide a sexual boost.

My own opinion is that, boss, if you have erectile dysfunction, sniffing ground rhino horn is not going to help with your problem.

Go and see a doctor. But there are still millions of Asians boiling tiger paws or elephant tusks in the hope of having a good time.

This has created a $10 billion illegal industry carried out by the most ruthless and irresponsible people who have corrupted systems in many countries.

But why am I writing about this rather than the corruption scandal in the Ministry of Health?

Because this too is corruption of its own nature and it threatens the survival of life, the rarest commodity in all of the universe.

Think about it. We live in the Milky Way, one of between 100 and 200 billion galaxies in the universe.

There are between 100 and 400 billion stars (a star is a sun) in our galaxy around which orbit between 800 billion and three trillion planets.

So you will understand when I say that for the ordinary mind, there are an uncountable number of planets in the universe.

We have been combing that real estate for ages, our eyes glued to the skies or peering through primitive telescopes or the more sophisticated lenses of the Hubble telescope.

We have never got a scrap of credible evidence, not a single widely accepted whisper, of extraterrestrial life.

A belief in aliens is more of a religion, conspiracy theorising, superstition, and the quite sensible conviction that surely we cannot be a cosmic error, we cannot be alone in the vastness of the universe.

But the only place we have found life is on that little blue dot floating in the vast darkness of space.

We should be preserving, protecting, and spreading life, not killing it.

LIFE WITH ANIMALS

Chloey (NOT Khloey), our little Jack Russell terrier, had been keeping the company of this no-good muscular Japanese Spitz with a beautiful, white coat.

We thought they were two innocent puppies playing. Until she got raped. (That is our version. The vet and the owners of the deadbeat Spitz say our Chloey was in season and little Mr Shifty manfully rose to the occasion).

Anyway, to us were born three fat, furry and blind but absolutely gorgeous Jack Spitz (I am patenting that one) puppies.

Seeing the children crawl into a tiny kennel to snuggle up to those puppies and the little furry animals clinging to them and raising their blind little faces for a kiss, it occurred to me that it is not just the “unexamined” life which is not worth living, with all due respect to Mr Socrates and his mug of hemp.

Life without animals is also not worth living. And God created humanity not so that it can shoot, grind, and sniff the horns of animals, but to care for them and love them.

And I am not even a tree hugger (yet).

[email protected]. @mutuma_mathiu