In a review of Elizabeth Kolbert’s book “The Sixth Extinction” the reviewer, Michael S. Roth, says that “We have entered an era in which human beings have begun to change everything about the planet’s interlocking ecosystems, and we have put many of those systems and our own species at enormous risk.” We have been bad news for most of the world’s living things, causing massive extinctions of species with which we share the planet.

At the time of the disappearance of the dynosaurs everything larger than a cat perished, and it took millions of years for life to recover. Now we are have acidified the oceans and forcing numbers of species to find other habitats all over the world. Invasive species are brought by ship or plane to compete with native plants and animals. Most species cannot adapt quickly enough and many are dying out.

It is like shouting into a gale, but Epicureans and intelligent people of good will should make themselves heard. We cannot turn back the tide completely, but we can support sensible things, like preventing the oceans being used as a cross between a toilet and an dumping ground for trash – or we can say goodbye to fish for supper for a start. The challenge is overwhelming, and a large part of the population don’t seem to care.

Will human beings survive their own greed and thoughtlessness, and will they cause their own extinction? How long will it take the planet to get over the damage caused?

Fortunately, in approximately twenty- five years I will be able to watch the disaster unfolding from a comfortable local planet or asteroid, my wife with me, maybe a dog, and an Epicurean garden where I can talk all day to myself, if I wish, instead of commenting on the overwhelming number of daily comments on the Epicurean blog.