The earth was like the Sistine chapels ceiling, cracking beneath our feet. Why does the earth crack that way? The sky robs the ground, to give it all back again in the end. The water flows down from the clouds, and then is absorbed by the soil. The soil becomes mud, then clouds roll away, and the sun works the way that she has for millions of years. The soil, cracking under the immense heat from the sun, dries up and lets the water become cloud vapor again. Those clouds then wait. They wait so they can make the cracking ceiling become a swampy valley once again. The plaster rained down from the rim rock where we sat. Roots, soil, flowers, exposed to our heedlessness, used to similar treatment by smaller interlopers. Mouse droppings scatter the rocks around us, turning back to soil, feeding the dying soil. These mouse droppings help the earth, unlike what humans leave behind.

Flinging our shit across the world, we are the monkey on this planets’ back. We burn our fuels, our oils, our coal and our wetlands. What does it get us? Electricity? Transportation? These fuels have already been deemed inferior to greener technology. Why not return to when we relied on the power of flowing water and constant wind to keep us going. Why can’t we stop being the monkeys that we are, and start being the humans we ought to be? We can, the only problem is we are just too stubborn to change. We believe that it is our right to exploit the world, when our real duty is to protect her from such terrible exploitation.

We cannot protect her because we are humans. We are dumb and ignorant humans. Monkeys are far more intelligent than us. If we were being monkeys there would be no issues. There would still be forest and lush lands for miles to see. There would be no cars, and there would be no toxic waste. The world would be how it naturally should be. She would be going on her natural cycle, not the cycle humans have set up for her.

The earth is sunbaked, wind streaked, snow crushed, and ice cracked. This land is subjected to harsh enough natural factors without us riding on her back, hooting to each other like the apes we have evolved into. We are the monkey on this planets’ back, if we don’t lose weight soon our steadfast support system will have her spine broken. The earth will be disfigured, and we have already started to see the nerve damage that we have caused. We see the damage in the gully. We see the trampled land, lined with our foot prints, and the footprints of the cattle that we brought up into a foreign land. Sadly, there is no cure for what we have done; there is only treatment, then hospice.