The four worst words in the English language are, "I told you so."

[Random Boomer]

2. It helps to back up to a larger perspective on it all

Despite our hubris and self-preening pride at being an exceptional species, we really are just animals pursuing and gratifying our emotional needs. Too often, our intellect is used mainly to justify whatever we do to get what we want, to embellish our motivations. This is the best that we can be; that it's not "good enough" is a subjective judgment, built on expectations for standards we can see but are too limited to reach. Blame really doesn't fit into that picture.

We are in the exceptional position of being witnesses to an unfolding mass extinction event and recognizing what it is on a conceptual level. It's harrowing to observe first-hand, so I often have to take a deep breath and remember that unbelievably horrible changes have happened over and over again on this planet. In between these points of dissolution and destruction, however, have been vast stretches of time that were calmer. Worlds in which Cambrian life flourished or placoderms dominated the earth or dinosaurs walked over Kansas.

History is folding us into the timeline.