A Pale Blue Dot

This is the "Pale Blue Dot" that is our Earth as seen from the edge of the solar system:

 Picture from the NPR article linked earlier.


I only read about this today though the 20th anniversary of the photo was in February. But Carl Sagan's words still gave me chills:

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

I couldn't have put it better myself (seriously, I couldn't have). Let's listen to him, yeah?

By Your (Solar) Powers Combined, I Am Captain Planet!

However much I may have loved the little monkey always riding on Ma-Ti's shoulder, I am not actually a muscular blue dude with green hair (though I guess I am weakened by pollution). Still, I agree with him.


Is using clean energy really that difficult? I mean, look:

Click to embiggen the image. Infographic taken from Pulse2, but originally made at the Land Art Generator.

See those tiny squares on the map? That's how much solar-panel-covered land would be necessary to provide power for our whole planet. Without pollution!

For people who are worried that this kind of thing would take away land we need for food because there is not enough food in the world and people are going hungry and how could you do this to them?!!, let me make four points.

1. The amount of food is not really the problem. The problem really lies in the distribution (or lack thereof). 
2. Take a good look at where those squares are located. The majority of the area appears to be located in deserts. There's plenty of non-arable and non-developable land ripe (despite not being fertile) for the laying out of solar panels.
3. It's not like the photocollection has to be concentrated in those areas. Solar panels on everyone's roofs would probably do the trick too - this is just an infographic.
4. Solar panels are only going to get better and better and converting light into electricity.

So there. No reason to vote for the retraction of California's Global Warming Solutions Act. Not that this was a political announcement or anything.
>.> <.<

Icy Hot

A volcano under a glacier? That sounds like an oxymoron. Or maybe a Katy Perry song.

But it erupted in Iceland a week ago. I, not being one to watch the news and not knowing anyone  trying to travel from Europe, didn't hear about it until a couple of days ago.

If you want to see some breathtaking photographs of the volcano and sigh-inducing pictures of poor weary travelers stranded in airports, check these out.