Let’s remain a space oddity

Noel S. Williams

In David Bowie’s haunting song, “Space Oddity,” space castoff Major Tom despairs that “Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do.”

The inescapable truth is that to keep planet Earth blue there is plenty we must do

Perhaps that’s why Stephen Hawking, a preeminent theoretical physicist, believes we need to escape, as in leave earth. The influential scientist has advised the only way humans will survive is if they leave Earth. Many scientists share this view.

I’m no tree-hugging alarmist, but along with an increasing number of red state conservatives, neither am I in denial about this proven fact: the Earth’s population for 2000 years remained steady; then, in the twentieth century it quadrupled.

On a finite earth, that’s simply not sustainable: no less a publication than the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. (2004-2005) estimates that on average Americans consume their weight in resources such as earth materials, fuel and food everyday. Another “Inconvenient Fact,” not from Al Gore this time but reputable Scientific American, makes the stark assertion that for everyone on earth to reach those levels of consumption would require four planet earths.

Perhaps Stephen Hawking is not so eccentric after all. NASA doesn’t seem to think so, as it forges ahead with the space station and plans for a permanent moon base by 2024.

Mention of NASA evokes memories of an astonishing awakening in1968. Apollo 8 entered moon orbit and ventured to the dark side. Beyond communication links and ensconced in the deafening silence of space they must have briefly felt like Major Tom adrift. What soon happened can only be described as an epochal event, an absolutely stunning, watershed moment for the whole human race.

As the space capsule emerged from the dark it focused on the most gob-smacking image in the history of images: the good Earth -- an immaculate and resplendent blue orb floating in a most glorious way in an otherwise foreboding emptiness.

The future view of earth from NASA’s base on the moon may be less inspiring unless we achieve sustainable growth. This undertaking may seem daunting, but we already have much of the technology to achieve it: hybrid cars, energy efficient buildings, forest restoration, soil management and even the ability to inject waste carbon dioxide underground instead of into the atmosphere where it causes global warming. According to the prestigious Science magazine, our current technology could stop the growth of carbon dioxide emissions for the next fifty years

California, with a GDP bigger than most countries, hasn’t been daunted. It uses about the same amount of electricity per capita, as it did in 1976; nationally, our usage is up 50% in same period. Under the “governator,” they have proposed strict fuel-efficiency standards for cars sold in the state. Schwarzenegger wants to reduce the state’s greenhouse emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Many businesses aren’t daunted, either. Much maligned Wal-Mart, the biggest private consumer of electricity, has reduced its fuel use 8 percent by preventing its trucks from idling. All of its U.S. stores use energy-efficient light bulbs. CEO H. Lee Scott Jr., believing waste reduction is good for business and the Earth, is determined that his company will double the energy efficiency of its 7,000-truck fleet in a decade and reduce waste from its U.S. stores by 25% in three years. Just imagine if that example trickled down to Wal-Mart’s 60,000 suppliers.

Nationally, the picture is not as happy as at the state level; indeed, states are leading the battle, filing lawsuits against the Bush administration’s clean-air efforts. Our national politicians, frankly, may need motivating, but tree-hugging liberals alone are too wimpy to do this. The well meaning “girly-men” will need the vigor of the red state conservatives.

First, we’ll have to take some politics out of the equation. Al Gore likes to take credit for stuff so lets give him a big pat on the back for raising the issue of global warming then promptly pack him off to an ivory tower in academia. There, he’ll have no use for his gas-guzzling, ozone-goring, private jet.

With polarizing Gore gone, we can forge an alliance between liberals and equally concerned conservatives whether they are evangelicals wishing good stewardship over god’s creation; business people who see economic opportunities, or sportsman’s groups worried about our wetlands.

Such an alliance even the greedy politicians can’t ignore. Just think about all those one-issue voters: abortion, taxes, stem cells, and gun ownership. They’re important issues, but completely eclipsed by ensuring the survivability of our 4 + billion-year-old planet.

Providence has been extraordinarily benevolent to life on planet Earth. Even if a few of the billions upon billions of stars out there have planets small enough to be rocky, maintain an atmosphere, have the right level of gravity, a magnetic shield, are the perfect distance from their sun and have a moon to moderate rotation and weather, it’s likely earth is still very rare.

To all you one-issue voters: the fate of our planet eclipses everything. The U.S. must lead in the global effort to protect our planet so that it remains a space oddity.
nwilliams211@comcast.net