6 days to madness

Compare the 6 days of the book of Genesis
to the 4 billion years of geologic time.
On this scale, 1 day equals about 666 billion years.

All day Monday, until Tuesday noon
creation was busy getting the earth going.
Life began on Tuesday noon
and the beautiful organic wholeness of it
developed over the next 4 days.

At 4 P.M. Saturday, the big reptiles came.
5 hours later, when the redwoods appeared
there were no longer big reptiles.

At 3 minutes before midnight, man appeared.
One-fourth of a second before midnight, Christ revolted.
One-fortieth of a second before midnight, the industrial revolution began.

We are surrounded by people who think
that what we have been doing for
one-fortieth of a second can go on indefinitely.
They are considered normal.
But they are stark. raving. mad

Found via the track 6 Days to Madness by Cloud Cult, which Tim showed me the other day. It is adapted from a speech given by the late David Brower, who founded Friends of the Earth and was a very big and important environmentalist. I love it. It always raises new questions in my head. It may be more powerful when you listen to the song. The words aren't lyrics; they're spoken above the music.

David Brower (image source)

I would like to study environmentalism more deeply. There's so much I don't know and so many ideas that would probably change my perspective a bit if I learned them. I suppose, though, I'll mostly have to be satisfied with occasionally coming across gems like this one, because I don't have the time, and probably the patience, to delve headfirst into it all. If only there were a Matrix-style plug in my head to download the information I want to be there...