From Bloomberg.com.
View a slideshow of earth's nine threats to humanity at bloomberg.com.
Apollo 8 astronauts orbiting the Moon snapped the first picture of the Earth from space on Christmas Eve 1968. The so-called Earthrise photo became an instant icon for all of humanity. Cameras have since become more refined. NASA produced this composite from layers of satellite data.
We’ve learned much more about how the world works. Geologists are increasingly convinced human-induced change is so pervasive that a new epoch of the Earth’s physical history has begun: the Anthropocene, or age of man.
An interdisciplinary team of scientists has begun to describe and debate what they call “planetary boundaries,” limits beyond which we 7 billion people risk catastrophic disruptions. The study continues to foster debate about the approach and findings and is featured in the new book, The God Species, by Mark Lynas.
Read more and see the well-produced slideshow of Don’t Panic: Earth’s Nine Threats to Humanity at Bloomberg.com.
Makes the case for space exploration …
Words written more than a century ago by Russian scientist and schoolteacher Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky.
He was the first person to envision the use of rockets for space travel. In a simple but wonderful turn of words, Tsiolkovsky surveyed the future and saw what the human race must do and where it must go.
“Earth is the cradle of the mind,” wrote the self-taught man who reached for tomorrow, “but one cannot live in the cradle forever.”
If Tsiolkovsky is correct, and he surely must be, then let it be written that Alan Shepard and Neil Armstrong and their fellow moonwalkers took the first faltering steps from the cradle, knowing their planet one day would pass into history.
If humans were successful in journeying to Mars and populating other planets, then the human race would not be without a future. A star might go nova and obliterate an entire solar system, disease, drought, and parched lands might sweep Earth, but if humans populate other solar systems … then life will go on.