"Whilst concern for the environment has become more of a mainstream preoccupation it remains to be seen if we have not already used nature’s goodwill towards us. The slash-and-burn ecocide of previous generations suggests the future is unknown, and the tipping point may already be passed. We fail to heed warning signs at the risk of great loss, yet nature offers a greater lifespan by virtue of the fact that it would eventually profit from our disappearance.

Whilst we continue to rapidly evolve our resource dependent lifestyles, the Cosmos shrugs its shoulders, completely indifferent to the mesmerising mess we make of this planet.

Through the study of the dissolution of matter and in experiencing our insignificance, I found reassurance. We are no more than fleeting passages of time, temporary layers that shift, change, and combine; universally, we swarm and are gone.

These are our moments…here and gone, as the fleeting passages of light so are the changes we have wrought upon the earth’s surface, we can but amount to mere scratches upon the surface no more than splashes of colour before we return to dust."

- Nicholas Hughes, 2012