Pathetic Little Mankind

Man has achieved some incredible engineering projects. He has rerouted and dammed rivers, moved mountains, dug long canals, and split the atom, releasing previously undreamed of force. These things tend to make Homo sapiens believe he can master Nature and do just about anything.

But periodically Nature puts on a show that should humble us. There are plenty of natural forces that we cannot predict, let alone control. Storms, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions. If you just look at still photographs and video of cars, boats, houses, even big ships lifted and moved by the tsunami in Japan a year ago or the more recent Hurricane Sandy, you see how man's creations are pitiful little toys in the hands of natural forces.

Many of man's achievements of the last century or so have caused not just complacency but hubris, the feeling that we can completely master Nature and reshape the earth and our world when and where we choose. And then Nature says, Pitiful little man, you need to remember who is boss, and see what power I can exert over you.

Copyright (c) 2012 by Richard Stein