Our biggest natural disaster

Iheard on the radio that the easter puma, which once roamed every American state east of the Mississippi, has been removed from the endangered species list and declared extinct this week.

This beautiful cougar has not been seen in eight decades.

Not that anyone should shed a tear. It is, after all, only one of more than 90 species of megafauna that Homo sapiens has eradicated in North America.

The long list of victims on that continent includes the American lion, several species of sabre-toothed cats, mastadons, mammoths and the giant sloth.

In South America, our record does not look any better, while we exterminated hundreds of species of megafauna in Eurasia, including woolly mammoths, several rhinos and hippo species, the cave lion, giant polar bears and the straight tusked elephant.

We have rid the small continent of Australia of three-quarters of its megafauna population, with marsupial lions, the giant shortfaced kangaroo, the Tasmanian tiger and the carnivorous “demon duck of doom” only a few entries in a shockingly lengthy list.

Our own relatives were not immune to our demolition of the planet, with Homo denisova, Neanderthal and floreiensis, among others, falling before the extinction lust. Even here in Johannesburg we probably owe the universe an explanation about the disappearance of Homo naledi.

For the past 12 000 years, we have raped the soil and fouled the air, but we continue to expect our planet to provide a home for our despicable desires.

And now that the land mass of planet Earth is a total mess, we are shifting our attention to the oceans, with space patiently waiting its turn.

We don’t even have respect for our own species.

Over the centuries we have erased entire civilisations, cultures and languages.

In group terms, we are unable to maintain the glue that bonds small social units – we leave friendships, family ties and marriages.

Tsunamis? Hurricanes? I truly believe Homo sapiens are the biggest natural disaster to ever hit our planet.

Luckily, our uncontrollable desire to pillage and plunder will result in us eventually ridding earth of ourselves.

The sooner the better.