Impoverished

Before Wanda Tamberly attends the Time Patrol Academy, Manse Everard tells her that pre-civilization Earth was "'...fit for gods...'" (Searching the blog reveals that we have quoted this phrase several times.)

In Beringia in 13,212 BC, Wanda sees for herself. Nine kinds of birds fly "...in their hundreds...":

"After two years she still found marvel in the lavishness of life, at the very gates of the Ice. Not before leaving her home world had she really known how impoverished it was."

-Poul Anderson, 13,212 B. C., I, IN Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), pp. 139-149 AT p. 140.

In case I have made anyone curious and they do not have the book to hand:

gulls

ducks

geese

cranes

swans

plover

snipe

curlews

one hovering eagle

But the main point here is that our world is impoverished. That is a point not to be read past but to be pondered. Maybe we have a responsibility to restore that lavishness of life? And to put industries into space?