> This bird was the last flightless bird native to North America and possess –to its detriment– a friendly demeanor that allowed humans to approach and capture it with little resistance.
Humans are dicks.
Consider climate change for example. It’s a slow moving train wreck over a couple of centuries. Yet, we are still approaching peak fossil fuels with the goal of going net zero by 2050.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/world-oil-gas-coal-d...
Clearly, that’s not going to happen.
In addition to being intelligent, however, as a species we are governed by power structures that are slow-moving and hard to change. In general that's probably a good thing, but when technology affects the world in ways that are extraordinarily rapid from the pov of a geological timescale, we find ourselves without any reasonable mechanism on hand to rapidly undo that damage. I think it's actually kind of frightening to imagine the kind of power that would be needed to make the large-scale changes to society and infrastructure necessary to reverse climate change!
That being said, as one would expect given our slow moving power structures, I think we are making slow changes. They may not be enough, but I am confident that in 100 years or so civilizations across the globe will reflect a much more climate-conscious approach to technology and infrastructure. And actually, if you look at it from a geological timescale, that is indeed a rapid change.
How do you read this article and come with this take?