I
The Earth, when it was born:
bathing in methane and rust
no oxygene there to breathe!
–
One day single cell life showed up
thriving for 500 million years
till cyanobacteria came along!
–
Photosynthesis, here we go:
sugar from water and CO2
refuse material: oxygen!
–
Early anaerobic life eradicated, suffocated!
99 percent died, yeah, you hear me right!
99 percent died, yeah, twas pretty tight!
–
Disappeared, Wiped out, Forever Gone
Disappeared, Wiped out, Forever Gone
Listen to the tale, listen to the tale of Extinction!
II
Rise up, plants, you’re the queens!
belching out oxygene into the air
throwing the earth into climate chaos
–
Snowball Earth for 400 milion years!
But life persevered!
But life flourished!
–
Plants decomposed, creating mud
where flow the rivers and what not
that shaped the surface of the earth
–
The next extinction came much later
some 250 million years ago
Great Dying, they call it
–
Super volcanos, sulphur and ashes,
the planet cast into darkness
lava spread, methane got loose, C02 spiked!
–
Earth froze, then heated up again
96 percent of all sea creatures
70 percent of all land creatures
–
Disappeared, Wiped out, Forever Gone
Disappeared, Wiped out, Forever Gone
Listen to the tale, listen to the tale of Extinction!
III
Some survived, but listen!
50 million years later, another dying
dragging on over 5 million years
–
an asteroid falling down the sky
alien rock colliding with Earth
caused it all, they say
–
And mammals gave way to archosaurs
and archosaurs gave way to dinosaurs
and dinosaurs became Kings of Earth!
–
But then, some 66 million years ago,
they went from dominion to extinction
And Earth barely blinked an eye!
–
Another star crashing!
more volcanos erupting!
the climate thrown into turmoil!
–
76 % of all species vanished
but with the dinosaurs gone
Disappeared, Wiped out, Forever Gone
Mammals could thrive again!
IV
Now, a new era started,
that of mammals and flowering plants
that of Antarctica and its ice cap
that of Human and Chimpanzee ancestors!
–
And in this era, a new period:
The Quarternary! Enters Homo habilis!
The meat eater, the tool maker!
Dominant creature on this pile of shit!
–
And in this period, a new epoch:
The Holocene! The whole epoch!
glaciers melt, temperatures rise
Neolithic humans settle down, domesticate
–
Cultivate cereals… and sweat
exploit stone, plant, animal, human
die of famine, malnutrition, and war
build up cities and pile up riches
–
And after this epoch, a new epoch:
The Anthropocene! The catastrophy-cene!
the steam engine and the industrial revolution
World War 2 and the Great Acceleration
–
Animals and plants perishing
because of human selfishness
Earth heating up once more
because of Capitalist excess
–
Onwards and upwards!
consume, squander, and kill!
Earth: a huge waste deposit
We shall bite the dust, too!
–
Peak Humanity!
Peak Oil! Peak Money!
Peak Food! Peak Water!
Peak Air! Peak Earth!
–
Disappeared, Wiped out, Forever Gone
Disappeared, Wiped out, Forever Gone
Listen to the tale, listen to the tale of Extinction!
V
But we’ve caused extinctions all along
since we moved out of the African savannah
killing off megafauna everywhere we went!
Mammoth, big cats, ground sloths, all gone!
–
Even our fellow hominides
Neanderthals and Denisovans
disappeared some 30 thousand years ago,
we took their place yet carry their genes!
–
500 years ago. another great dying
Homo sapiens killing Homo sapiens!
Europeans colonizing the Americas
exterminating 90 % of their fellow beings
–
Death came by violence, but mostly by contagion
They brought with them their deadly microbiome
–
Disappeared, Wiped out, Forever Gone
Disappeared, Wiped out, Forever Gone
Listen to the Tale… of Extinction!
VI
Geological, biological, human apocalypses
causing each other, amplifying each other
so this time round, humans will go, too
–
What’s the point fighting so hard
Trying to escape extinction
Is it not the fate of all species?
–
Human comes from humus, the soil,
from which new life grows
Human rhymes with humility
–
Impermanence is Change!
all things perish to make space,
to make space for new things
–
History of life, history of extinction:
apocalypses always happen
not for us! not against us!
–
We insist, and insist, on our especialness
mark geological time with our evolution
declare a new epoch of our devastation
–
The survivors of the coming apocalypse
will close the Holocene forus
and open a new epoch after us
–
Mutant Mantises, maybe, or evolved sloth bear?
Transgenic plants, maybe, or biodigital intelligence?
Aliens colonizing Earth, feeding on human DNA?
–
Their memories of life on Earth will be other
humans running a poor second in them
but who will be there to still care?
–
But who will be there to still care?
————————————————————————————————————————————————
Credits:
Modified version of the long poem written for & performed for the performance PEAK HUMANITY, premiere on June 2021 at Kraftwerk Bille, Hamburg as part of the blurred edges 2021 Festival. Text: Ingrid Hoelzl. Musical concept: Georgia Ch. Hoppe. Performers/speakers: Frantz Loriot, Marcia Lemke-Kern, Emese Kovacs, Ingrid Hoelzl.
Extinction Blues has been performed as a site specific performance at the 8th Festival Teatro para el fin del mundo / Un derrumbe (Theatre for the end of the world / Collapse) in Tampico, México (24-27 November 2021) upon invitation by its artistic director, Angel Hernandez.
Acknowledgement:
I’ve taken inspiration, among other readings in Earth science, by an article by Jarius Grove, entitled “A Recently Apocalyptic Tone in Everything: The Anthropocene or Peak Humanity?”
GENERAL HUMANITY 