Bill Dahl

EARTH Interrupted Bill Dahl

Our actions or inaction are fraught with consequences. EARTH Interrupted walks down this road, into a future where the trajectory of the cumulative, current combination of inertia, progress, time and next are leading us into. The term urgency engenders an extreme reaction or perception from many people. Perhaps the phrase a renewed, deliberate sense of possibility to change the current trajectory might be a more appropriate characterization. But, yes, time is not an element of the equation we should be taking for granted anymore --- just as we should not be with inertia, progress and next. Finally, what happens when it becomes apparent to human civilization that sometime has morphed into SUMtime for our species? As some of us know, and all of should know, we are in the midst of the sixth great extinction event at this very moment --- indeed we have been in it for a considerable time. But, this one has a different cause. It is the first recorded global extinction event that has a biotic, rather than a physical, cause. That cause is us. We humans exist within an atmosphere of expectations. Frankly, expectations are inhabited by assumptions. Yet, human history reveals that human expectations are subject to change, just as assumptions are revealed to be relatively accurate, inaccurate, useful or, in some cases, at certain points in history - counterproductive and even destructive. Yet, expectations and assumptions provide humans with comfort (progress), a sense of chronology (time), energy (inertia), and direction (next). Certain epochs in the history of human civilization (and specific cultures) demonstrate that a re-appraisal and a renewed desire to re-imagine a new trajectory...one that the cumulative, current combination of inertia, progress, time and next are not leading us toward. Earth Interrupted inhabits this fictional historical epoch - yet - one that may be tangibly different than those that have preceded it."Several of the central themes of EARTH Interrupted involve inertia, progress, time and next. These themes spawn a central question: Will global crises finally provide the conditions that will spawn the forms of human collaboration that we require to change the trajectory?In terms of inertia, we are all pushed along by the priorities and time constraints of daily living. Inertia oftentimes creates short-sightedness; impairing us from seeing the big picture; and giving deliberate, serious consideration to where human civilization might be headed. Inertia has a tendency to constrain our focus to me and mine rather than us and ours. It also assumes that energy expended (individual, collective or in commerce) is almost wholly positive and productive. I challenge these notions in EARTH Interrupted. Progress is a component that has been infused into the worldview of man for centuries. Progress is the notion that life will get progressively better. Yet, there is a price to pay for progress. Clearly, we currently inhabit an epoch in history where issues like climate change, resource depletion, clean/alternative energy, drinking water, fertility, food supplies, bio-engineering, advances in neuroscience, medicine, genetic engineering, and the trajectory of technological advancement --- all pose both promise and peril for human civilization. Yet, it's my view, that the notion of progress is one that deserves a reappraisal. I use the novel to pause, to interrupt, if you will, and reconsider this widely held proposition. This will be apparent for the reader of Earth Interrupted. Time - we assume too much regarding time and the expectation that tomorrow will dawn just as yesterday did. What happens when we awaken to the fact that time, our time, is in jeopardy?