Has the great gas giant of humanity already gone extinct?

Are we seeing now just spectres of the humble earth-tethered roots of our species? Has the event horizon on our timeline been eclipsed? The supernova already unfurling at a speed we lack collective capacity to fathom, much less understand.

Facing the stark realities of ecological collapse, in light of the persistence of Capital and hyper-extractive social organization, knowing the devastation already experienced by most present-day humans the world over, all of these and more, my frontal cortex wants to answer these questions in the affirmative.

Yes, the great gas giant of humanity has already gone extinct. Based on the best science available we have long passed the point of no return, the fate of our species sealed to time. Within generations, Homo sapien will  likely go extinct.

Despite the confidence of this understanding intellectually, my heart knows differently. This knowing flows out of me, out of experience and connection with my own humanity and that of others. A humanity I feel growing, maturing, developing.

It is from these glimpses of change, and all of their possibilities within myself, that an abiding skepticism of the so-called "science" arises. Not to the extent that I doubt the catastrophe of the moment – or even the extinction of our species and the thousands of other plants, animals, fungi succumbing and already lost to the Anthropocene – but I feel an overwhelming awareness that this crisis, this trauma whose magnitude eclipses anything experiences by any human ancestor, presents as generous opportunity for deepening of the humanity my question asks of.

Maybe the supernova already ripped through the fabric of space-time, maybe the gas giant of humanity is extinguished at its core, but may the spirit of all the we humans are, the best of our ability to know and care for and love, be a part of, honor and cherish, grieve, and heal, feed and dance and be sorrow-filled, breath and see and sing and laugh, connect, problem-solve, destroy, renew and transform, may all of that and more shine brighter than ever before in the wake of our extinction.

If it is so that our species doesn't cross into new millennia as blood and bone, it is also so that the dreams and memories and knowledge of ourselves, our ancestors, our descendants, will be carried forth by whomever survives, tender loving bodies beyond human. The wind. The rivers. The bedrock. Microbes.

As we fall, how might we return to dreaming, remembering, and knowing in ways that serve this awesome other-than? How might we organize to assist, make easeful, that which opens next?

For it may only be in this turning that we continue in life ever after.