His Epic Message Will Make You Want to Save the World | Short Film Showcase
Fun fact: Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Mankind is about 140,000 years old. Let me put that in perspective. If you condense the Earth's lifespan into 24 hours, that's one full day. Then we have been here on this planet for, drum roll please, 3 seconds.
3 seconds! And look what we've done. We have modestly named ourselves Homo sapiens, meaning wise men. But is man really so wise? Smart, yes; and it's good to be smart, but not too smart for your own good. Yes, we have split the atom. Yes, we build clever machines that navigate the universe in search of new homes.
But at the same time, those atoms we split created nuclear warfare. In our quest to explore the galaxy, we reject and neglect the home that we have here now. So, no, that cannot be wisdom. Wisdom is different. While intelligence speaks, wisdom listens. We have willingly covered our ears to Mother Nature's screams and closed our eyes to all of her help wanted signs.
Wisdom knows that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So, if we were wise, we would not be shocked when we see storms that are stronger than ever before or more droughts, hurricanes, and wildfires than ever before. Because there's more pollution than ever before, more carbon, more trees cut down than ever before, at a record pace. We have increased the extinction of animals by 1,000 times the normal rate. What a feat!
In the next 10 to 100 years, every beloved animal character in every children's book is predicted to go extinct: lions gone, rhinos gone, tigers, gorillas, elephants, polar bears—gone! In 3 seconds, species that have been here longer than us will be gone because of us. In this 3 seconds, in an existence shorter than a Vine video, we turn the circle of life into our own personal conveyor belt. Somebody, anybody, help!
We were given so much—the only planet in this solar system with life. I mean, we are one in a million. No, actually, scientifically, we are one in a billion trillion trillion. That's a one followed by 33 zeros. And I don't want to get too spiritual, but how are we not a miracle? We are perfectly positioned to the sun so we don't burn, but not too distant so we don't turn to ice. Goldilocks said it best: we are just right.
This paradise where we are given medicine from trees—not coincidentally, but because the song says we are family! Literally, everything, every species, is connected genetically from the sunflower to the sunfish. And this is what we must recognize before it's too late.