WHERE ARE THEY?
Enrico Fermi asked the famous question; “Where are they?”. He was referring to advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. Probability arguments led to the conclusion that we should/might be visited periodically — so where are they?
Various explanations were offered: we are unique in the cosmos (highly improbable); they take a look at us and say ‘give them another million years of evolution to develop speech and intelligence; they know trouble when they see it and keep a safe distance, etc.
One possible answer was that very few civilizations make it through the era of rapid technological advance. An era that our civilization on Earth is clearly in now.
If one does an objective and thorough inventory of the ills being perpetrated on the Earth’s environment: over-population; an alarming degree and increasing rate of pollution of the air, water and land; many extinctions at an increasing rate; loss of crucial forests; destructive agricultural practices; losses in key species like bees, fish, amphibians, krill, etc., etc., etc.; then I think we may have identified the most relevant answer to Fermi’s question.
Almost all civilizations either kill themselves off in a nuclear war, or they pollute themselves back into an effectively pre-technological state. Maybe a very few civilizations give themselves a second chance and get it right that time, or the next, or the next. Or maybe not.
RLO