September 2011: The top of the evolution: In my thought of April, I wonder whether prayers are all that is left to us in order to deal with climate change impacts. Remember, the Governor of Texas had declared the days from Good Friday to Easter Sunday (April 22-24, 2011) as “Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas.” Rain did not come as a result. What came was an extended drought and out-of-scale wildfires. Thousands of houses have been taken by the fires. We are in September and no rain is in sight. Could it be that only the devil is listening to the prayers of Texans? Taking a holiday in the Oil state, the devil may have brought along some heat from hell and ignited some of the fires that plaque the people and take away their property.

What can we learn from this? It may be that there is someone listening to our prayers, but not the one we want to listen. To listen and to do what we ask for. To correct our mistakes. Looks more like the situation described in Goethe's 'Der Zauberlehring' (The Sorcerer's Apprentice): 'Die ich rief die Geister werd ich nun nicht los!' (the gosts I call for, I can't get rid off now). Wouldn't it be great if our decision makers would not offer prayers as the last hope (without knowing who will respond) but rather aim to solve the self-made problems by simply adhering to rational reasoning?

After living in the USA for seven years and being confronted with a daily doses of stupidity, I had a thought flash and a question popped up in my tortured brain: How do we know that we are the most intelligent species on Earth? We all seem to agree that we are the top of the evolution (even those who don't believe in evolution do believe that!). But can we be sure? Our actions, which lead to the extinction of one culture after the other, and which now even may lead to the extinction of our emerging global civilization, seem to falsify this assumption again and again. But if not us, who then deserves the title of the top species, the one that does not have to relay on prayers as the last resort for survival?

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