16 April

Nothing fires up a redneck more than telling them some new pointless property development or road is blocked by an endangered species. Some tiny little frog or insect, how ridiculous! But that thin blue line of life on the surface, which also stops meteors pounding us to smithereens, was created by species, interacting. Species don’t live ‘on’ Earth, that habitable bit where we all live. They created it. They made the atmosphere. If we keep wiping out species, that thin blue line will evaporate into space, the planet will freeze over and meteors will smash us every day. Except we won't survive long enough to see it.