[ WP ] Simply put , the Earth is dying of old age .

Even now people die of old age. Whether that ’ s because of the plaque that ’ s finally had enough time to close the artery, or from the cell that ’ s finally been born to replicate out of control. If I had to guess what's killing the Earth, I ’ d say something slower and more painful. Emphysema maybe. As it chokes it ’ s last breaths on the wastes we left behind. 
 
 We knew this would happen, of course. That ’ s why most of us are long gone to other planets in other star systems. I say most of us, but in truth there are only about 100 of us left here, circling the place of our species birth from 250 miles above. We have read Earth its last rites. It ’ s time has come to be let go. Nothing grows anymore. Based on the last samples we collected, nothing ever will again. 
 
 In our cabin we have an old picture of Earth. It ’ s popular among the humans who have never actually seen it as it is now. It from a book called the Encyclopedia Britannica that existed millennia ago. That image still exists though, if only to show us what doesn ’ t any longer. There is nothing to connect that image with what I see outside our ship. Drab and dark, the Earth is an expanse of metal. A testament to industry run rampant. 
 
 Our governments sent us back here, from all over the galaxy, to see it off. To make sure it ’ s gone. Like a family watching their house burn to the ground from the street, we are here to witness. We are here to leave Earth for good and rid it of the very things that caused its death. All we can do to honor it now is watch and then leave silently, carrying in our genes the earth that birthed us. There will be humans far into the future of our universe, but there will be no more Earthlings.
