Entropy in the Anthropocene

The first photograph in this series was taken inside a bland, corporate hotel room on the North Shore of O’ahu, between Ka’ena Point and Kahuku on the most populous island in the Hawaiian archipelago. The image of the ancient-looking fauna and the atmospheric play of humidity and sunlight through the window struck me as having a prehistoric, Mesozoic Era quality to it. Evidence of palm trees can be found in the fossil record from 63-90 million years ago and were contemporaneous to dinosaur’s time on planet Earth. Something struck me as I looked at the scene outside this window, and later, as we walked on the nearby beaches strewn with the debris of very slowly decomposing brightly colored neon plastic fishing nets. I was traveling with friends wearing similarly plastic (fossil fuel derived) ironic polyester windbreakers in the same neon colors as the fishing nets. We had just picked up a snack at McDonald’s that we jokingly referred to as potentially having a similar shelf life to the plastic clothing we were wearing and the fishnets we found on the beach, dancing around to Whitney Houston somewhat carelessly. Amongst this tableau of imagery was the incomprehensible scale of millions of years of natural and geologic time and humans' toxic, ephemeral, and precarious life in our Late Capitalist, High-Corporatist era. There we were in the “vacation spot of vacation spots,” wearing, consuming, and noticing the detritus/remnants of our lives as an essentially invasive species. One could not help but wonder at human’s ability to transform the world around them for the worse, with all the impending crisis that will haunt the unluckiest of us all. In particular, the young that will inherit our collective recent pasts’ negligence. At the same time, there is dancing and fun to be had, burgers and French fries to eat, swimming and drinks. And still, the ocean, nature, erosion... seemed to be already taking back over. In the span of human life, it will feel like, and be, a disaster... full of fear and death, dwindling species diversity, climate refugees, not enough clean water, and air conditioners that will make it bearable while making the situation worse. The earth, however, will continue to evolve and grow over our waste, thriving in a new direction. We just might not be a part of it.