Nobody asked but …
A current educational experience reintroduces me to the vastness of geologic time. The primary lesson is that consequences often develop over geologic timescales, not those of human lifetimes. I see that the world, regardless of the natural effects of humans, proceeds in a way that is nearly oblivious to our small presence. Does the Earth care who is POTUS today, or what he may do with regard to the Paris Accord? Nah. I have often taken comfort in the idea that the Yellowstone Super Volcano could, at any time, render most of our quotidian concerns beside the point. It sobers the mind when otherwise gripped in the throes of emotion. But now I know that even an eruption of Yellowstone is but a hiccup in geologic time, disappearing altogether in cosmic time. 99.99999999999999999999999999…% of the cosmos will never even know any POTUS’s name.
— Kilgore Forelle
