Codex

I have been reading this book The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kobert. It’s about human history; the story of our species now, in the seventies, in 10000 BC, a hundred thousand years ago; how the whole story is one of human beings driving change on earth. Change for us means agriculture, cities, the Rolling Stones, and means species extinction, global warming, ocean acidification for everything else. Geologically, we are now in the epoch of human beings. Millions of years on, when the next species looks back at us, they won’t see our books, buildings, music, they will see a paper thin layer of rock in the sediment record that will tell this story. This story has been coming into focus for as long as humans have been telling stories.

I love learning about this and the thing is it’s not easy reading, it’s dark. At the same time there is a flip side the coin that we have the capacity within ourselves to “do the right thing”, to figure this stuff out and transcend destructive behavior, and I believe one way or another, we will. Life finds a way! And I can’t think of any band whose music is more closely tied to this story, the scale, tone, rhythm, lyrics and changes, better than Radiohead. When a new book comes out about climate change or extinction, and when Radiohead comes out with a new record about thousand year old trees, I feel the synergy between the two, and to me, that’s exciting! We are finding the way out together…

Link to Radiohead “Basement session,” where they perform the entire ancient arboreal album, The King of Limbs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DvM4GObIN4