Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.
—Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Miles and miles of empty
Surround our lovely Earth
Human beings are blessed to share
The planet of our birth
We devastate and plunder
And treat it like a sewer
With rapacity to horrify
An interstellar viewer
We’re stupid and we’re greedy
And violent and cruel
Who came up with such a lot
Of self-destructive fools?
Everything that we create
Will decompose and rust
All of our accomplishments
Will tumble down to dust
Existence is a gift
Don’t misuse your ration
You must defy this dreary life
With kindness and compassion
by Richard W. Bray