The astronauts’ aboard Apollo 17 took one of the most requested photos from N.A.S.A. in 1972 as they were traveling to the moon. N.A.S.A. labeled it the “Blue Marble.” It was taken looking back towards the earth from about 18 thousand miles away, showing this beautiful planet wrapped in wispy white clouds. From that distance it was a beautiful blue and white orb but on the ground things were happening. Since that day we and other countries have sent probes all over the galaxy but nothing that resembles our beautiful home has ever been seen anywhere else. Now that doesn’t mean there isn’t another earth like planet out there some where, but when you think about it why don’t we just take care of the one we have.
The greatest threat to our planet is us and yes some of that can’t be helped because as long as we are breathing and emitting bodily wastes we can’t help but to pollute this planet. But even that can be overcome with technology or at least slow down the process of decay. Instead we fill our heads with pipe dreams, of colonizing some other planet we haven’t found yet, just in case things get too bad here and accept the decay of earth, as the cost of doing business. Our cities are choking with noxious air but yet fossil fuels are still the most popular. Our weather seems too erratic to be normal but our leaders deny any correlation between climate warming and the weather. Seas are rising and the arctic is melting but once again our leaders say it isn’t happening. Hundreds of thousands of species of bird’s, animals and fish are going extinct. Yet we turn a blind eye to all of it. The economy is good and we’re just going to hang our hat on that. The economy being good should be all the more reason to use that money to safeguard our earth.
This year for the first time in twenty years there were no bees to pollinate my apple trees so they are barren. Is it just a coincidence that our neighborhood has seen an increase in commercial spraying for pests? As a kid I was a hunter and there were pheasants and ducks in abundance but no more. We’ve chased them away with off road vehicles and wave runners. There are very few places sacred anymore to the birds and animals.
Sometime in the not to distant future the earth will not be conducive to healthy living for most people. There will be more and more disease and more unrest. We are seeing the seeds of it right now. Maybe it will be weather disasters or mankind will reach the boiling point and have that war of all wars we they have been practicing for and preparing for and stockpiling weapons for. Pandemics too are looming on the horizon with medical professionals powerless and they admit it.
I watched a film a while back that showed what would happen to the earth if mankind were wiped out. In the course of a few centuries it will heal itself without any interaction from us. From out in space it will still look like that picture I talked about at the start of this soliloquy of mine. But on the ground the healing will have finally began. Without us.
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