nice even number
here's the thing
even if this isn't The End
even if future generations look back on this era with relief instead of just horror
even if there are future generations
which at this point I'd love to be sure of
even if we melt all the guns and join all the hands and replenish all the species and the corals come back bursting bright and full
one day, there is going to be The End
for us, anyway
and The Earth, certainly
and by then
and I still hope it's a loooooooong ways off from now
by then
it won't matter how much or little we do
everything changes, remember?
one day, we will be obselete, and that really is the end of that
So I think the best that we can hope for at this point
is
1.that humans don't become the first species responsible for their own extinction
(because we'd be the first known species to do that, and really, who wants THAT honor?)
and
2. That when The End comes, we've done enough by then to make absolutely sure that
when the very last humans vaporize in the heat of the approaching sun or whatever
no matter how special or important
they die holding hands with one another
and feeling something better
than guilt
and fear.