Bacteria run this planet, we just live on it. There is no way to overstate the influence they have on our lives — or the impact they could have on our future. We have offered microbes that make greenhouse gasses an unprecedented opportunity to overproduce, and our abiotic petroleum and chemical activities have changed enough of the environment that the bacteria keeping us breathing are struggling to survive. The preindustrial balance relied on populations of microbes that naturally consumed greenhouse gasses, all of whom are now outclassed. As long as we can barely communicate with most microbes, we have little hope of staging a direct intervention. That's why it's time to make new friends.