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elax -- this is not a piece about the US Supreme Court granting marriage rights to gay couples. I'€™ll leave that hot debate to others. This is about the larger picture of humanity, gays and straights alike.

Way over a decade ago, a public service advertisement appeared in major Indonesian newspapers featuring a long-nosed, goggled, slightly feathery, two-legged creature with a hint of gills on its limbs. Apparently it was a scientifically based drawing of what humans might eventually evolve into if we continue polluting and trashing the Earth.

I can'€™t remember which NGO or international organization came up with the ad, but I remember the uproar that came afterward. At the time, climate change was such a novel idea that only a few had heard of it, so the drawing naturally came as a shock. Some suspected it to be exaggerated propaganda, most refused to believe it was even a remote possibility.

Now that The Walking Dead and Wayward Pines make weekly appearances in our living rooms, we occasionally get up to go to the kitchen for another bag of snacks, but nobody gets up to protest about the possible '€œevolution'€ of humankind.

Deviating from standard zombie-themed shows and movies, in The Walking Dead every human automatically turns into a zombie after their death. Even if the person dies of the most natural causes that have nothing to do with being bitten by a zombie (and no, even the mighty Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta can'€™t tell why, let alone find a cure).

Wayward Pines jumps ahead two millennia to 4028, where thanks to a DNA mutation of a mere 0.5 percent, humanity has evolved into flesh-devouring, pack-hunting, humanoid predators stripped of any trace of humanity as we might define it now. Humans changed the Earth, Earth responded by evolving, then humans evolved in return: a non-idyllic circle of life.

Now, I'€™m not suggesting that we should confuse creative entertainment with scientific fact. But isn'€™t it strange, that in a space of less than two decades, both science and entertainment are putting forth the notion that what we do not only harms where we are, but also who we are?

The scriptures illustrate doomsday mostly in the natural realm '€” erupting volcanoes, mega tsunamis, fiery skies '€” but I'€™m more and more inclined to believe that doomsday will take place when humans are wiped off the face of the Earth because of who we'€™ve become, while Mother Earth stands still waiting for the fresh batch of inhabitants.

If it only took a 0.12 percent DNA mutation to make Homo sapiens from the now-extinct Homo Neanderthalensis, who'€™s to say that in time, our DNA won'€™t mutate further and lead to its species own extinction?

As a race we are yet to balance our constant hunger for advancement, or just plain hunger, with our natural environment. Environmental talks at the government level are sluggish, which means that for the most part, businesses aren'€™t pressured to become more eco-friendly. Fast-paced fashion and technology industries use up resources to churn out new products every month, most of which will be used temporarily before being tossed into landfill '€” and that'€™s just two examples off the top of my head.

On the individual level, while awareness is spreading, attitudes haven'€™t changed much'€”perhaps because there are no sufficient incentives or penalties in place. We keep multiplying, because our progeny are the most indelible mark we can leave on the Earth.

We keep turning on lights unnecessarily because we can afford the electricity bills. Heck, I live in a pretty nice downtown high-rise with expats and well-heeled Jakartans and I still have neighbors who can'€™t separate their garbage into the organic and non-organic dumpsters '€” light years away from actually separating papers, glasses and cans to be recycled.

Meanwhile, exotic new diseases keep evolving '€” forget Ebola when we now have Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) '€” and temperatures keep rising. If the continuing heat wave that has claimed over 1,000 in Pakistan didn'€™t quite register with the first world, certainly London and Paris hitting 36.7° C and 39.7° C respectively this week have grabbed headlines.

We pause for a moment, mourn the casualties, sign online petitions and then move on with our usual lives. In our gas-guzzling private vehicles (or, gasp, private planes!), sporting the latest resource-depleting knickknacks, and yet forgetting to bring our own damn grocery bags on our next trip to the plastic bag haven, otherwise known as a supermarket.

'€œThe problem isn'€™t real unless it affects us directly. Prioritize the present, what'€™s in front of us, otherwise just delay, delay, delay ['€¦],'€ Wayward Pines said it best.

So, are we doomed? Are we not heeding the multiple warnings of our own well-deserved demise? I'€™ll leave it to you to ponder over. And if we meet later, either running away from brain-eating zombies or awakened in a cryogenic chamber, a giant wall away from flesh-devouring humanoids, let'€™s compare notes. I promise not to pick your brain too much.

Lynda Ibrahim is a Jakarta-based writer with a penchant for purple, pussycats and pop culture.