I’ve been watching a lot of space tv on PBS lately.
I’m a huge fan of science documentaries and such, but especially space: cosmology, planetary science, origins of life, exploration, all the things. I love it. It’s my comfort food, I think because of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, which was like religion in my house. We did not miss an episode. And I loved it, loved everything about it.
And NOVA was a huge influence on my early development as well, particularly the space stuff.
Recently, there was a series, I think from NOVA, about the geologic history of our sweet little Planet Gaia here, and it was surprising to me all of the huge changes that happened because of seemingly tiny shifts in the balance of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The planet was hot, so plants just went nuts and sucked up lots of carbon dioxide and breathed out a bunch of oxygen, and … well, carbon dioxide is like turning on the heat, and oxygen is like turning on the cool. We went from tropical warms to ice-covered ball in … well, a few million years. And stayed covered in ice for 300 million years, until life at the bottom of the ocean began to warm things up again.
And now, humans are heating the planet up something fierce … and this will cause a spot of bother for a bit, and then, well … maybe in another 100 million years we’ll be an ice ball again. Who knows? Hard to predict. But one thing is for certain, no matter how bad we mess things up, the world is gonna keep spinnin’.
Here’s a song with a couple NSFW words, so be warned.
Creation isn’t finished, the world isn’t done
If the stupid monkeys fuck it up the world will still go on
Maybe makin’ us sentient wasn’t the best idea
Might shoulda kept the Tree of Knowledge under lock and key
Lock and key, lock and key
Shoulda left the Tree of Knowledge under lock and key
300 million years the planet slept in ice
Apparently it felt so good she went and did it twice
Now we’ve got a fever, climbing higher and higher
From a planet of ice to a screaming ball of fire
Ball of fire, ball of fire
From planet of ice to screaming ball of fire
Gluttons for destruction, slavering for more
Greedy, lusty saboteurs, dirty resource whores
Humans have a nemesis, the enemy is us
But conscience rises up to make us better than this
Better than this, better than this
Conscience rises up to make us better than this
People, come together; people, join hands
With you sibling, nibling, parent, cousin, with your tribe and your clan
If we work together we can fix this place
We have the know how, the vision and the grace
Vision and grace, vision and grace
We have the know how, the vision and the grace
Hey, I’m migrating over to Substack to hang with the cool kids. Come on over! But you can still subscribe and read things here.