We can thank the cyanobacteria for this
Being here today along with all evolved life
As I learned today listening to you
Walking along hearing the history of the earth.
Our first mile covered a few billion years
When life in the ocean lived on sulfur
Until these bacteria emerged to eat carbon dioxide
Fixing nitrogen and excreting oxygen.
Everything follows from that biochemistry
Leading to algae and later plants
But all that byproduct oxygen wreaked havoc
Being toxic pollution to most existing life.
And as photosynthesis consumed the carbon dioxide
Causing the opposite of our greenhouse effect today
Our planet cooled into a frozen snowball
Covering the entire ocean under thick ice.
Lucky for us the cyanobacteria survived
And volcanoes spewed more carbon dioxide
And the atmosphere rebalanced to our happy place
Before the anthropocene crisis unfolding today.
So this organism is the scourge blooming in our lakes
Fed by our fertilizer runoff fouling the water with toxins
Undrinkable and unsuitable for swimming or even boating
Taking us back into the primordial soup.
Every crisis is caused by successful adaptation
Exhausting all available resources
Poisoning the environment with waste
Creating opportunity for anything that can thrive.
