The End of the World?

Before you start making fun of this little fellah with the shocked expression, just read on and view the pictures and you will understand why he has reason to go beady-eyed and flat-eared! In fact, he's probably even shitted himself from fright but there's no way of knowing that from the photo. I'm sure he can't believe he's been spared so far, given that the kids haven't, and he'll be wondering what his next move should be if he is to stand any chance of survival in a dying crumbling world. You might think why bother? If the world is decaying and dying after some apocalyptic catastrophe, why not just lie down and die with it? Why string it out and struggle on in an increasingly hostile environment? Well maybe he won't bother. Maybe, unable to flush himself down the toilet, he'll ransack the family medicine cupboard, take an overdose and exit quietly.

The reality is that it's odds on that one day we, homo sapiens (hahah), will have screwed up so badly that we will finally have rendered our planet incapable of supporting us and that it will have gone so far down the path of non-viability that it will just implode on us, as it were, and put in motion our slow but sure eradication as a species from this Earth that we have so scarred with our unholy activities. This is assuming of course that we have not already wiped ourselves out by some mad mutually destructive orgy of violence. I'm here essentially referring to a slower process of decline and destruction that comes about by tampering with the forces of nature that have nurtured and sustained all animal and plant life, including us unholy malefactors, for millions of years.

It is surely obvious to all thinking men and women that the only creature on this planet which does not exist in harmony with its environment is mankind. Only humans feel the need to alter their surroundings, and massively so, and to create an artificial habitat that satisfies their 'creature comforts'. Only humans seem ill-adapted to their world. All other creatures appear to be pefectly adapted to their environment, living in harmony with nature and at one with it. Only mankind, through some mysterious course of evolution, has seen fit to develop body coverings that not only protect him in practical terms from the weather but apparently have become indispensable to preserve his modesty, i.e. hide his intimate parts, from the gaze of his fellow men. After all, in many tropical countries where temperatures are often asphyxiatingly high, the most comfortable condition is nudity, but of course this is no longer an option (at least not in public), as our bits and pieces, mostly down below, would then be on view to others. The fact that we have the same bits and pieces as everyone else does not seem to carry any weight. The other person, except of course in an intimate relationship and behind closed doors, must not see our naughty parts because, well, they may not have naughty parts and be shocked to see that we have!

Come to think of it, our horrified little pussy above may have seen these two speciments in the altogether and been traumatised for life! Before you know it, he too will be rushing off to get himself some fig leaves to cover his naughty bits. Though me may have to be content with sycamore leaves, fig-trees being rather thin on the ground in this part of the world. Or better still, some modern equivalent of leaves that's reusable and long-lasting.

Anyway, I digress, and we must get back to the point of this sorry tale. And one hell of a sorry tale it is! In fact, speaking of hell, will our much-deserved end be as portrayed in the last of our images here? Are we destined to roast in one vast fiery inferno and our unhallowed ashes blown to the four corners of the planet in preparation for a brave new world free of mankind and his destructive ways? Will our greenhouse gases and the rest of our pollutants stoke the flames of our self-annihilation and rid the long-suffering Earth of us and our pestilential ways? If this is to be our fate, then we will have more than earned it. We will not be able to plead innocence or perhaps even beg forgiveness. Our end will relieve the planet of a human plague that has over-exploited and criminally abused its resources for long enough and that has caused untold harm to the other animals that share this planet, to the plant life, to the land, seas, and atmosphere that make up Mother Earth. Our mass death will not be mourned, our passing will not be lamented. Quite the contrary, it will finally be 'good riddance!' to the most destructive creature ever known on this planet... Us! Cheerful chappie, aren't I?

Are these the searing flames that will finally cleanse the

Earth of mankind and his works and create a new world

where the balance of nature has been restored?

Or am I one sick individual who needs

psychiatric treatment?!