You Never Know What Might Thaw

We are not yet self-sustained.
We are chemically passive,
Subject to change but inert.

Are we a system? Are we,
Although passive, capable
Of evolving by process

Of natural selection?
Can we, properly speaking,
Be said to evolve at all?

It is grey, after the storm,
Our world more closed than open,
But under the ice, we’re warm.