God's Aquarium

From Billmon's description of the coral reef off the Sinai Peninsula:

Just for a minute, I was able to forget both sets of catastrophes, and simply marvel at the beauty of the planet we all inhabit. These days, that is the ultimate luxury.

The destruction of life on this planet is humankind's ultimate shame. Our own extinction in the wake of this destruction will be the ultimate irony. We failed to value what we did not create and so our existence is, ultimately, without any value.