The destruction of life on Earth began about ten thousand years ago, with the appearance of the first cities. Agriculture begat cities. Cities begat agriculture begat cities. The Human Beings born to live as nomads, born natural hunters, predators, were stuck, stuck in a prison of their own making. And their descendants have paid for it ever since.    It’s everywhere. The untiring machine of civilization is devouring the Earth, slowly, but surely. Cranes and bulldozers are working around the clock to claim new land, to transform it from a lush place full of life, to a gray and dead place, Civilized humans have transformed at least fifty percent of the earth, including the oceans, making the remaining spots of life just that, isolated pieces of life in a landscape of concrete, plastic, glass, tarmac and the walking dead.    Deep in the wilderness you hear the humming of the Machine.