I got up this morning and there was this beautiful sunrise. Red and orange and gold, you know a typical sunrise. And I've seen a lot of them in the 48 years I've been on this earth. More than most people, maybe, because I've made an effort to see them.

Sunrises and sunsets.

And although they share some similarities they are all different. They all signify new beginnings and ends. The birth and the death of something.
And they signify diversity. The phenomenon that life is inherently very diverse as it unfolds. I find that fascinating, awe inspiring and sometimes extremely touching. That there is such a creativity in the unfolding of life. The fact that all( I don't know if this in fact is true) snowflakes are different, all human fingerprints are different (that's 7 billion fingerprints more or less, that's a lot of different fingerprints, although I wonder how we know this to be true ;-)).

As life unfolds, it changes, adapts, plays with possibilities.
As a species we human beings are extremey good at adapting and playing with possibilities so much so, that it is threatening to become our downfall. We are so succesful that we are slowly eradicating what makes this world so rich. Biodiversity. Slowly, but consistently we have been and still are robbing other species of their habitat. Ecosystems that build slowly and are supported by extremely intricate networks of interrelational lifeforms start to break down. Some have been breaking down over centuries, some break down very rapidly when enormous areas of vegetation are being removed for growing crops, for mining, for extracting fossil fuels.

And we are ever growing in number.
When I was a child some 40 years ago, I remember we hit 3 billion people on earth. In my eyes then an astronomical figure. Today we're more than 7 billion. And 7 billion people with a growing need for stuff. An ever growing consumerism in the pursuit for meaning and happiness. And at the expense of other species.