New Word: Speciocide

It isn't only CO2

CO2 is at record levels – as is methane, by the way – and the rate of increase is accelerating. No one is surprised. And our species seems unmotivated to respond.

Pardon me while I shout. I don’t do it often, so I hope you’ll forgive the exception. But

WE DO KNOW, DON’T WE, THAT THE CURRENT SYSTEM, IN USE TO VARYING DEGREES BY 7 BILLION PEOPLE, IS KILLING US AND LITERALLY – NOT FIGURATIVELY, LITERALLY – DESTROYING THE FUTURE OF OUR AND OTHER SPECIES?

We are behaving like 3 pack a day smokers with a rancid cough who deny any connection between their habit and its effect on their health. Only worse: this smoker is locking his children and their children in an airtight room and insisting they take deep breaths.

Any political debate that does not address this as an issue that is at least as urgent as World War II is irrelevant, a travesty, and a capital crime against humanity. It is not on the same level as genocide: it is worse. I had to look the word up: Speciocide. The Black Rhino is our latest victim, but not our last. I don’t think there is a word for the murder of one’s own species. By the time we need one, it won’t matter.

We don’t mean to do this. But we must stop it.