If you have read this book from cover to cover, your head must now be chockfull of all kinds of information. You probably also feel like your head is going to burst. I promise you the pain will go away with time. Haha! Once it does, you will probably start asking yourself what does it all mean? You may also ask what yourself what can we do to save our planet? Unfortunately we cannot control everything that affects our world. There are things that are just beyond our control.

When you come to this realization it will probably make you feel a quite powerless and perhaps even fatalistic. Relax…it is only human to feel this way. Since we are at the top of the food chain, it is only natural that we should believe that we have complete control of our world and our destinies. Unfortunately this is just a lot of wishful thinking on our part.

Even our moon plays a very important role in our very existence. The moon gives our planet stability, kind of like the axis of a gyroscope which allows it to spin smoothly. Without the moon, our rotation would be erratic and unstable and totally unsuitable for the existence of life. The magnetic core also plays a role in preventing harmful rays from killing us. Our atmosphere also protects us from other harmful rays produced by the sun. We also just happen to be in the right location or the habitable zone in the solar system. This ensures that the temperatures we are exposed to are suitable to life.

I am sure that you are aware that not only the world we live in but the universe that it exists in is quite complex. So complex that even our most brilliant scientists have not been able to decipher all of its mysteries. It is not only complex but incredibly dangerous as well. Every corner of our solar system, galaxy and universe holds untold dangers. This is one of the reasons that there are so few existing worlds with intelligent life. It takes just the right set of circumstances for life to develop on these worlds. One of these criteria that absolutely, positively has to be present is an atmosphere.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but the lack of a protective atmosphere really does make a difference. Chances are that the Earth has the same amount of asteroid collisions as the moon – but you’d never know it. That’s because our atmosphere shields us from them. The constant changes on Earth’s surface also cover up most of the evidence.

If you want to see what it is like to not have an atmosphere, try living on the moon. Since there is no atmosphere there is not only no air to breathe, there is no water to drink either. You are also exposed to the extreme temperature fluctuations that exist in space. From day to night, the temperature ranges are quite extreme. In the day, it is a balmy 224° Fahrenheit and at night it is a frigid -298° Fahrenheit. Since we do have an atmosphere we do not have to worry about these temperature extremes nor micrometeorites and solar wind irradiation. These come about when the turbulent and frequently relentless conditions that occur on the moon break up deep layers of the crust. This allows the solar wind to sweep up not only the visible gray dust and rock fragments created by this activity, but also invisible fragments of volcanic glass. These extreme conditions make any life on the moon impossible.

You could think of our planet as a really big crib that is protecting us from falling out of bed. Since it provides us with everything that we need to live, we should treat it with more care and love than we do. As I have stated, the atmosphere not only helps to protect us from all but the largest of errant heavenly bodies. They simply burn up from the heat generated by the friction created when asteroids pass through our atmosphere. That is why the moon is full of craters, it has no atmosphere to protect its surface from asteroids and meteorites.

There are many theories as to the origin of life. Some scientists believe we came from asteroids or even comets, while others believe we came from a primordial soup that got its start from electrical charges generated by lightning. Carl Sagan provided an excellent demonstration on how this could take place on his amazing mini-series, the Cosmos which aired on 1980.

One of the reasons that we need to take care of our our world is because there really is nothing suitable for life in our neighborhood. The closest planet for life is many light years away. With our current technology that distance is simply an insurmountable obstacle. We are probably several thousand years away from obtaining the level of technology necessary for interstellar travel. So as I said earlier we better take care of our world.

While I don’t believe that we are the cause of global warming, I do believe we are in a cycle that just happens to be one that is involving a warming trend. I also don’t believe that our ocean levels are rising. If you don’t believe me just take a look at the picture I provided below of Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts.

This rock dates back to 1620. The level of the Atlantic was the same then as it is today. Just a little over 400 years. So what gives?

One of the hottest periods we experienced dates back to the time of the dinosaurs. A more recent time that falls in our recorded history took place during the age of the Egyptian Pharoahs. Neither time involved an industrial revolution. However, this does not mean we are out of the weeds just yet.

A very intelligent man named Jacques Cousteau once said that if our oceans died, our world would follow within a year. Unfortunately it seems like we are hellbent on doing just that. We are over fishing the oceans, we are killing off our sharks for a tasteless soup and we are polluting the hell out of it as well. This is not the way to care for our greatest treasure, is it? We need to end this trend of mindless and destructive self-gratification. We, as a species give no thought to what the repercussions of our actions are. We just blunder blindly on. I liken our species to a cancerous growth that continues growing unabated in total disregards to boundaries and borders.

The only thing that gives me hope is when I see what kind of beauty our species can create and the totally selfless behavior that we are capable of.

The biggest hurdle we face is ourselves. We have a penchant towards fanaticism. Fanatics are typically singleminded and as a result are intolerant of any views that don’t coincide with their own. This intolerance of opposing views and ideas I am afraid will be the cause of our downfall. In just the last few years this trend has worsened. Just ask Alice about going down the rabbit hole. Once you go down it there is little hope of getting out of it.

What we need is smart conservation based on real science not the corrupted crap we call science today. We have to put our planet first not our personal agendas. It makes no sense to kill our planet in an effort to save it. I believe every species has a right to live out their lives on this planet. Just because we are at the top of the food chain doesn’t mean that we have the right to destroy the planet or kill off countless lesser species.

I have a parting thought, are we really the top dog? How easily we were almost overwhelmed by a simple virus. Remember, coronavirus?

This is a parting thought from an essay from The Guardian. It is entitled “None of Our dreams can survive the loss of a planet.” By George Monbiot

“With the exception of all-out nuclear war, all the most important issues that confront us are environmental. None of our hopes, none of our dreams, none of our plans and expectations can survive the loss of a habitable planet. And there is scarcely an Earth system that is not now threatened with collapse. Let’s begin with the ground beneath our feet. Soil is a biological structure, created by the organisms that inhabit it. When conditions become hostile to their survival, the structure collapses, and fertile lands turn to dust bowls. The global rate of soil degradation is terrifying. We rely on the soil for 99% of our calories, yet we treat it like dirt. Ocean ecosystems are in even greater trouble, hammered by a combination of industrial fishing, pollution and acidification, as carbon dioxide dissolves into seawater. Forests, rivers, wetlands, savannahs, the cryosphere (the world’s ice and snow): all are being pushed towards the brink. Above all, climate breakdown is gathering at shocking, unanticipated speed, with disasters occurring at 1.2°C of heating that scientists did not expect until we hit 2 or 3°. Support the Guardian Yet you would scarcely know it. Most of the media, most of the time, either ignores our environmental crisis, downplays it or denies it. The reason is not difficult to discern. Most of the media is owned by corporations or billionaires, who have a major financial interest in sustaining business as usual. To keep the proprietors, shareholders and advertisers happy or, in the case of public sector broadcasters, to keep the government off their backs, the most important issues of all are neglected.”