the human virus

There is a quote from The Matrix that goes:
"Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet."

Up until very recently, I've always kind of winced at this idea, and dismissed it as stupid. But lately, slowly but surely, I've come to see the viral nature of the human race.

I drive to school, well, sort of. I drive to a bus stop halfway between home and school. The route I take goes through pretty much empty land/open space. I drive past the old Rocky Flats site, which has been completely torn down, leaving only a mis-matched coloring in the grass where the asphalt used to be.

South Highway 76 on Indiana (east of Indiana, 76 is actually 86th which turns in to 88th), suburbia abounds. Homes with no yards, strip malls, asphalt and car exhaust fill this areas, south of 76. Once I passed Highway 76, there were open fields, sparsely spotted by a hand full of homes, each singly built, with a solitary, secluded feel to them. The entire drive after that point was a rolling sea of grassy hills with an awe inspiring view of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Yet, now, when I pass Highway 76 on Indiana, there is a battalion of enormous trucks spewing clouds of black exhaust. These trucks crawl across these hills like a plague, chewing up the earth, flattening hills, and making it all "convenient" for the prospective new home buyer.

It disgusts me. I can truly see the viral nature of humans and our consumerism in these trucks massacring open, and beautifully empty, space.

We are the plague. What is the cure? How much will the cure cost us? Will we have to throw off our consumer mindset and begin to actually take notice of our surroundings? Heaven Forbid!