Happy Day to Earth, our only home planet (so far…).
Kick-off for the ESO proposal review marathon
April 21, 2009At the Planetary Defense Conference in Granada, Spain
April 28, 2009Hello,
Today is Earth Day. A lot of actions and initiatives have been taken around the world: cleaning the beaches and the streets, promote green energy to the public and in school, write your representatives to support green legislations, and so on…
In my case, I do realize that I have my share of contaminating this planet, just based on the carbon emission of my frequent trips for conferences and other meetings. However I have been promoting a “greener” science over the last 4 years, using for instance video conferencing when it was possible such in our last Io workshop or our last meetings for the future Lick observatory instruments. I take public transportation every day or I commute with friends. We remodeled our house installing insulation everywhere and energy efficient appliances and water heater. I am considering to install solar panels as soon they will be affordable.
I know I could do more actions and I am working on it. I was disappointed to hear that very few initiatives were taken in Europe and the media barely mentioned the existence of Earth Day.. So if you missed it because you were not aware of it, tomorrow you may consider to participate. Better too late that never! 🙂
I am attaching a link to a video  (4.9 Mb) based on a sequence of images  taken by the Messenger spacecraft while it was  doing a gravity assist swingby of our home planet on Aug. 2, 2005 (see detailed caption below). Our planet is beautiful seen from space, let’s make sure we keep it like that.
Next post will be from Granada, Spain..
cheers
Franck M.
The Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft captured several stunning images of Earth during a gravity assist swingby of its home planet on Aug. 2, 2005. Several hundred images, taken with the wide-angle camera in MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), were sequenced into a movie documenting the view from MESSENGER as it departed Earth.(credit images to NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)
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3 Comments
Everyday, we are reminded of the danger our universe is in. As high as the cost of the problem seems, the solutions appear to be of higher cost. During the Olympics, Beijing had to clear up cars from the car, stopped industries from operating, use some more scientific innovations to clear the environment. But we all know what that cost is to their economy. Due to that cost, it becomes obvious these measures were by no means going to be permanent.
On that line Franck, your commuting on buses or in friends’ car is also not productive, therefore not sustainable. Solar electricity is good but as you rightly pointed out, the technology is yet to be cheap, which is a challenge to the scientific world.
It’s a long way to a safe earth. In Nigeria where I live, it is obviously easier to achieve with prevention.
Finally, as Einstein would say, problems cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them.
My commitment since Earth Day is to stop using coffee cups but a mug. It is simple yet will save $35,000 year to my company.
Hello Victor, I disagree respectfully with you. Those are not costs but investments. Yes they cost at first but then enable future savings.