The planet on which we all live sufferes from a dearth of Earth. Planets have always connoted to me sterile bodies., whereas Earth has always meant to me a planet, the only planet in our solar system, that was fecund. This, I believe, has been true for millennia, but of late, things have changed for the worse, and drastistically. Over recent decades, the number of species on Earth that has become extinct has increasesd astronomically. Veritable seas of plastic within oceans have swelled. Catastrophic climate change knows no political boundardies. This and the imminent threat of a nuclear holocaust are existential threats to all living creations on Earth. Perhaps I should haved titled this piece THE DEATH OF EARTH instead of the THE DEARTH OF EARTH.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks