Mama Mia! The Entire Earth is Italian?
Understanding the fragility of the blue-green marble on which we live
If you’ve never listened to/watched Carl Sagan’s speech, “Pale Blue Dot”, you should do so. It’s only about five minutes long, but contained within that one twelfth of an hour are words that are chock full of meaning, and incredibly poignant at this juncture of time. Of course there is the very real fact that Carl Sagan has one of the most incredibly soothing and downright awesome voices known to man, but the words that accompany those sounds are rich with content, so much so that if they don’t make you step back and consider the infinitesimal odds of survival here for as long as we’ve developed civilizations here, any logical thinker would have a litany of questions.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.”
It’s right there- Genesis 1:1 (NKJV). Later in that same chapter,
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created them; male and female created them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” - Genesis 1:26-28 (NKJV).
Later, “Then God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” - Genesis 2:15 NKJV.
From the beginning of days, mankind was entrusted with taking care of what for all intents and purposes is quite the fragile planet. Upon a recent drive to the North Carolina coast, a number of trees were passed that had clearly been felled in a recent storm, as their leanings in one direction were evident of a sudden gust of wind or even a downburst that may have nudged the trees downward in a matter of seconds. Yet today, mankind can quickly level entire forests or areas of woods in a matter of hours and days- for example as evident in the Charlotte area as land is cleared out of the way for what will usually end up becoming what I affectionately call the “Queen City Trifecta”, the ingredients of which are banks, apartments, or storage locker facilities.
Yes, mankind was put in charge of the land, even to toil over it when necessary, as:
“Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.” - From Genesis 3:17.
Yet rather than take care of it, land is cast aside for the next building we can place upon it.
A recent walk on the beach during the waning hours of yesterday’s daylight revealed a small square of sand upon the beach that was cordoned off and labeled as a sea turtle nest- a nest laid overnight by a sea turtle before her return to the ocean. One may question the need for such labels, including the fact that the nests are protected by law by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, but with the drive of modern society to touch and photograph everything, many times for mere “social media cred,” as the younger generation would espouse, the necessity for laws to protect fragile life on Earth is required, including ourselves- as signs remind tourists to be careful so as to not fall into the Grand Canyon.
As humanity advances with incredible feats of engineering, technology, and intellect, some of the developments have fallen into the category of morbidity, as mankind now possesses weapons capable of destroying every living thing upon our planet in a matter of seconds. Our nuclear stockpiles, while decreased due to weapons treaties at the conclusion of the Cold War, are still capable of creating an endpoint for civilization. As Albert Einstein realized the stark danger of a nuclear outbreak, he famously reminded the world that,
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
This of course assumes that some number of mankind survives and is able to fight again at some future point.
Changes are that man may also not be responsible for our planet’s demise, as while our Earth is hurtling through space, we are at constant risk of bombardment by comets, meteors, asteroids, and errant solar flares. The fact that our planet has survived unscathed (okay…mostly unscathed- sorry, dinosaurs) is a true miracle of God. This planet was entrusted to the care of humans, yet we are lacking in fulfilling our duties.
Yet, despite these past few paragraphs, it’s not all doom and gloom. Sure, the Doomsday Clock of Bulletin of Atomic Scientists fame may have us at a mere eighty-nine seconds to midnight, but focusing our attention upon that number will create an anxious populace incapable of doing what must be done to preserve ourselves and our planet. Preservation of the fragile spack rock on which we find ourselves will lead to longer and more fulfilling lives for us all, as we all advance throughout time on this one pale blue dot (as coined by Sagan), the only home that we have ever known. It is still possible to live our lives to the fullest of potential, yet while maintaining and caring for a gift from God at the same time.
Carl Sagan reminded us that every emotion, person, war….everything- happened upon this Earth. This one planet has nurtured all of mankind since the beginning, and must be treated as the miracle that it is. As Sagan reminds us all in the short monologue, this planet is the only place we’ve ever lived, and at least in the near future, there’s nowhere else to go. So let us treat the Earth as the place that mankind was entrusted to keep from the very earliest of days- for this pale blue dot, this tiny place in a massive universe is all that we have, and it must be nurtured as such.