I sent out a link to our postings here at LT regarding the oil hitting the beaches of one of my favorite places on Earth: Pensacola Beach and the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Amongst the many recipients: my nephew, Mike. Here was his response…

I know people who STILL think we humans are too small to affect the Earth. I want to bring them to Pensacola and throw tar-balls at their faces. If there was ever a time for we humans to really push to stop using ancient dead plants and animals for fuel its now.

Anyway, Im totally pissed about this whole thing! There is a scale in astrobiology called the “Kardashev scale” that measures how advanced civilizations are. There’s Type I, II, and III mainly. Type III would be a civilization that can harness energy of an entire galaxy without negative disruptions for anyone else, II’s harness the energy of their local sun/star without negative disruptions, and “a TypeI civilization has achieved mastery of the resources of its home planet” without negative disruptions… We’re TYPE 0! We’re sucking! (We may even be -1 type) The saddest part is that we already have the capability and technology to be Type I-and-a-half, but we’re to greedy and stupid apparently to even move towards it.

-Mike Frye-Hunt

This fills me with great hope that future generations will get it, when mine: which claimed they “got it,” really didn’t and still doesn’t. Oh, and they’ve turned into a growing cesspool of intolerant, self-absorbed, cranks. It also makes me feel very old. Damn kid’s soooooooooooo much smarter than me! (Of course, Mike, you’re not a kid. But I guess I am getting old! You win.)