today

Toward the end of Ursula le Guin's book, The Dispossesed, the scientist Shevek speaks with the ambassador from Earth (Terra), Keng. She tells him about 'her Earth' —

My world, my Earth, is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and gobbled and fought until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite or violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. But we destroyed the world first. There are no forests left on my Earth. The air is grey, the sky is grey, it is always hot. It is habitable, it is still habitable — but it is not a world as this is. This is a living world, a harmony. Mine is a discord. [...] We survive there [...] People are tough! There are nearly half a billion of us now. Once there were nine billion. You can see the old cities still everywhere. The bones and bricks go to dust, but the little pieces of plastic never do — they never adapt either. We failed as species, as a social species.