The 47th Earth Day shows readers a tiny white spot not readily seen on a black background. On my first view, I didn’t see it. A moment later, there it is…Earth. The newspaper chose Earth Day to show Earth as a speck. From our perspective, a speck doesn’t mean much. However, this image precipitated some thoughts. Why present Earth as a speck on Earth Day?

I’ve always been struck by the Earth population statistic, probably off by perhaps a few million, it hovers around 7 billion. As a collage artist, I challenged myself to represent this visually. From space, we never see human life. I doubt we see it if all 7 billion of us were brought together – then Cassini might detect us. I wonder how many species other than human out number us? I found it necessary to create a fictional story based on the “speck theme.”

It’s impossible to live on this speck. There’s no room. We are elbow to elbow. Our speck metaphor is like a jam-packed elevator with not a single square inch for another human. Same comparison can be made for a subway at rush hour. Once I was two inches from the ear of the man next to me. This is way past the survival of the fittest. We are all going to die. No such thing as carrying capacity. We passed that a century ago.

Our home, an insignificant speck of rock, water, and air is covered with us. We are so tight we can’t even push people away from us because our arms are pressed against our bodies. We all know that the end is near. People are dying and they don’t even fall down. A while back, we crawled over each other like ants. There was shoving and fighting – all useless because the winners were instant losers. We’re all losers. Who will live? Maybe a small group of people are hiding in cave some place and they will be the only survivors. But no, the cave is jam packed; the mountain where the cave is located is covered with humans – no water, no food, dying by the millions. The stench of decaying human flesh doesn’t have chance to start because a dead human is stripped of muscle in minutes.

The catastrophe is well under way. Masses of people are swimming into the ocean, only to drown. As more and more die, space opens up and they fall. The ground is completely covered.

I feel my feet becoming numb. Now I can’t feel my legs. I am wobbling and bouncing off people near me. I’ve lost my sight, hearing, touch. I am dead.