Human Nature

Tempskya is a true and natural child of the soil. Gaia is her mother. She is not a cultivated weed of the ancients worshiping non-existent gods because she is older than these humans. She is aware that human nature is disorderly but she refuses to accept it cannot change. Humankind continues to destroy the very earth that has nurtured it for millennia. It is time the planet protects itself before its very existence is no more. She began to send messages far and wide to every living thing through Gaia. Her words of warning reached every plant and animal including man, that the planet could no longer sustain the current abuse. If abuse and neglect did not cease, Earth would die before the next century arrives. 

To the flora and fauna she requested they no longer make any effort to sustain humankind until humans joined the fight to save Earth. Current plant food sources could choose to become poisonous or to go dormant. Animals could desert the human world and revert to their wild state in places known only to their kind where humans have never trod. Gaia would make sure they would not be sought any longer for their taste or as pets. Man would not be able to successfully grow any crops. There would be no more food sources for the species that was systemically destroying the entire world. 

At first mankind was hungry but did not try to change. They ate less meat and more plant based foods when the animals began disappearing. They mourned the loss of their pets but hunger drove them to substitute protein from plants and learn to live once again without the love of animals. When plants turned against them and poisoned instead of nourishing them, there was massive death around the world. Civilization died as well. The only food source was each other. Man turned against man except a few small groups that had taken shelter in areas formerly not known. These groups had realized Tempskya’s plea was valid and moved to areas they could cultivate food sources without harming the planet. They returned to sensible methods of growing food sources much as their ancestors had done. Those groups thrived and the plants returned to their normal states wherever the groups settled. Their locations were kept secret while the rest of the world starved or turned on each other in cannibalism.

Years turned into decades and then the new century was approaching. The earth now had mostly barren areas with no vegetation or signs of life. The humans who refused to listen to the warnings had suffered the penalty of death. Gaia had even refused to accept their bodies or their spirits so those barren areas were littered with bones while the spirits had no place to go so they wandered the barren wastes. Their cries and pleas for forgiveness were ignored. As they sowed so they reaped.

Gaia began allowing plants to fill in some areas and create links between the surviving groups now that those who ignored the warnings were gone. Gradually Earth returned to the lush green it had been before man destroyed it. With no more chemicals, all plants returned to their nourishing or medicinal states. Man returned to healthy bodies and minds. Seeing the barren areas reminded them of the results if they tried to return to the old ways. Most of the children no longer suffered from ADHD, autism and all the conditions that had plagued them for generations. Everyone’s immune systems functioned at peak performance. Flu, colds, viruses and even AIDS, cancer, dementia and most of the deadly conditions were no more. Some claimed they were living in Eden. 

Periodically some of the men ventured to the what was left of the previously civilized cities and towns to bring books, manuals and other printed material to be used to educate the younger adults and children to read, write, do math or learn about natural sciences. Some of the older generations volunteered as teachers. They were excellent in teaching and relating the history of the end of the previous world they had lived through. There were no better ones to instill warnings not to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors. 

Gradually the animals returned so man again had pets. Horses were trained to be ridden. Chickens again became food and cows gave them milk. Goats also gave milk. Milk was turned into butter and cheese. Sheep were sheared to give them wool for the winter months. The animals again became food sources as well. Enterprising men planted cotton and recreated the tools to turn it into clothing and bedding. The old ways slowly invaded the the thinking of each generation.  

Little by little the settlements returned to building homes and businesses. Settlements turned into towns then cities. Areas formerly used as trade routes sprouted dirt roads then pavement. Some of the old ones remembered how to make vehicles that horses could pull. Younger ones studied instructions on vehicles powered by gasoline and electricity but they had neither resource so the vehicles were not valid in their time. Younger people grew tired of lanterns and candles. They longed for the electricity they read about in story books. Electricity that gave light, heat, cooling, cooking, sound and pictures. Inventors sprang up who studied how to produce electricity so soon power plants sprang up. Houses and other buildings were wired and candles or lanterns were no longer needed. Fans, heaters, then air conditioners were rediscovered. Gradually electric cars appeared. Tempskya begged Gaia to stop man from reverting to a lifestyle that had destroyed so much of the world but man did not listen now any more than they had before the destruction.

Birth rates increased Cities and towns increased accordingly as did crime rates. Builders were constantly busy and trees decreased. Demands for building of concrete and stone out distanced those of wood that now was used for wall paneling, furniture frames or tables and chairs. Quarries appeared in places formerly forests or woods. People tired of harvesting plants in the wild and began tilling the land again. Areas feeding them for a couple of generations were leveled of native plants and seeds from other settlements were sown taking nourishment from native plants. The more man reverted to the old ways, the less the land supported them. Tempskya cried out for Gaia to again tell the plants and animals to leave where man lived and return to safe areas away from man. She did so vowing she would not allow them to ever return to areas man occupied.

The second destruction was complete devastation of mankind. Gaia and the planet now accepted that humankind’s covetousness is boundless and is just one revelation of the darkness of man’s heart. They are innately ruthless, savage to each other and the planet.