I often think about what life will be like for our descendants in the future.
Say a thousand years in the future after we've used up all the reserves of
petroleum and precious metals and helium and even road salt.  What will life be
like?

I often eat an apple during my half-hour commute to work down semi-rural roads.
I live in a county that 50 years ago was probably purely rural and is turning
into one giant suburb.  Also on the east coast of the US, every patch of
untended property ultimately turns into a forest.

I think about what those people 1000 or 10000 years from now will eat. It's said
that modern man is eating petroleum.   So when I'm through with my apple, I
throw the core out the window into a section of unkempt trees I pass by. I'm
guessing most of it is ultimately private property, whether a 10-acre plot of
forest owned by a real estate company or a single-family homeowner with a big
lot, but I try to stay clear of anyone's actual living space where children
might play.

Now I'm sure the Sierra Club probably wouldn't be entirely happy that I'm
spreading a non-native plant into the woods.  I'm sure militant property rights
folks wouldn't be happy that I'm deciding how someone else's property should be
landscaped.

The fascinating thing is I wonder if there's even the slightest chance of those
apple seeds feeding anyone ever in any moment in all time.   I even wonder if
there's some scenario where it could do some kind of harm. (Besides offending
property owners who figure it out or the green's gripe with invasive species.)
If humanity is to survive here 1000 years after petroleum and platinum is used
up, will pine forests serve an ecological purpose that apple forests won't.

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