The human footprint

Yesterday, I interviewed a group of researchers at SUNY ESF about the perilous impact of population growth on climate change.

The math seems pretty simple: 6.7 billion people eating Big Macs and driving Hummers probably won’t produce a happy ending.

The same day, I happened to rent a sci-fi thriller on DVD, a remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still.

The premise of the film is that humans are a big problem: “If the earth dies, you die,” says the alien Klaatu, played by Keanu Reeves. “If you die, the earth survives.”

Alan Weisman’s book, “The World Without Us,” explores this territory. His website has a sort of cool graphic that shows how quickly your home would be reabsorbed by nature if you were to disappear…

On the other hand, there are a growing number of scientists and writers exploring the concept that humans may be a sort of necessary part of the ecological mix: a way for nature to become self-aware.

And of course, most of the world’s faiths place humans at the pinnacle of the cosmological pyramid, just below the Creator.

So what do you think? Are humans the problem on this Earth Day? The solution? Are we a virus or are we a miracle?