12/02/19
Last night I went to see Brian Cox at Sheffield Arena, his tour ‘Universal’ is worldwide and hugely popular. The first thing that struck me about it, and to be honest made me feel very hopeful, was that there were so many people of all ages gathering together on a Sunday night to learn about our incredible Universe. Children from 6 or 7 upwards were there with their parents, learning, engaging and having a general interest in the science and history of our world. It was so lovely to see.
Whilst it was so encouraging to see so many young people in awe of the science and visuals we were greeted with, it also left me with a very bitter sweet taste in my mouth and a gut churning notion that was actually quite terrifying – we are destroying the one home we have.
Do we realise how lucky we are to be here? To have a planet with the perfect combination of gravity, H2O, Oxygen and CO2 that is just enough to sustain life?? It seems near impossible.
Astronaut Alan Shepard said when looking back at earth from his spaceship ‘Freedom 7’ - “I realised up there that our planet is not infinite. It's fragile. That may not be obvious to a lot of folks, and it's tough that people are fighting each other here on Earth instead of trying to get together and live on this planet. We look pretty vulnerable in the darkness of space”
I LOVE this quote. It really speaks volumes to me. When Brian Cox mentioned it in the show (matched with some truly extraordinary visuals I might add) I actually felt a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. Why can’t we stop all the fighting and protect the beautiful world we have? Why do we abuse this world? Fill it with trash and chop down thousands of trees every day? It’s terrible.
If we think about the science behind all of this…The big bang, atoms and elements… we understand a little more of how precious this all is. We are all made of the same atoms and elements that created this world in the first place. The big bang took place about 13.8 billion years ago and has since created everything we are today; everything we are, everything we can see in the night sky, everything we eat, drink, touch and smell...it all comes from the same place.
“Every carbon atom in every living thing on the planet was produced in the heart of a dying star” – Brian Cox
When we think like this and realise that we are all made of the same things, would you throw trash at yourself or chop your own leg off? That is essentially what we are doing to this planet.
Pollution is one of the biggest killers of our earth and our species, affecting more than 100 million worldwide and kills more than 1 million seabirds and 100 million mammals every year. That is all on us. We need to think about the future of our planet and the future generation; how will they grow up to respect the earth if we don’t show them how it is done?
Children contribute to only 10% of the world’s pollution but are prone to 40% of global disease. More than 3 million children under the age of 5 years die every year due to environmental factors like pollution - again all things we are responsible for. We bring life in to this world and we should be more careful with how we care for that life and how we are setting an example. There will be nothing left if we don’t change our way of thinking and acting.
“When we look out into space, we are looking into our own origins, because we are truly children of the stars” – Brian Cox
It took 3 billion years for complex life on earth to form, and the earth itself is 4.5 billion years old roughly. So it took over 2 thirds of the earth’s life for us to be who we are today. That is an awful lot of time, evolution and science we are throwing down the pan by destroying our planet so quickly.
We must look after the planet just as we look after ourselves. We are delicate just as our planet is, just as life is. Our Earth is a delicate flower in the ever crumbling forest that is the Universe.
Look after our world and take care of yourself; for every star in the night sky is a part of you, is part of us, and is a part of the wonder that is our beautiful planet.
We are all made of stars.
Kommentare