'Best Earth'

The overriding concept should be 'Best Earth' or 'Best Earth Ever,' the idea that we should always be thinking about how to make this planet as good as it can be.  In particular, I'm intrigued by the idea of beings from outer space coming upon planet Earth.  The question naturally arises, 'What will they think of us?'

the crux of the matter

The crux of the Planetarian position is that we should implement policies that our descendants, looking back from a distance of two or three centuries, would be grateful for.  In many cases, it's probably impossible to know what such policies would be.  In the case of global warming, however, isn't it obvious that they would want us to ameliorate it as much as possible?  Now, how should we go about doing that?

descendants

Comment:

Environmental policy should be based on this consideration: that people two or three centuries from now will look back on us and say, 'Thank God they did what they did. They saved us.'

mckibben

Bill McKibben on whether 'the big brain' was a good adaptation:

http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/bill-mckibben-confronting-climate-change/

population

There is essentially no political will in this country to do anything about global warming. This is true of all but a handful of other countries as well. People are simply unwilling to accept higher prices for gasoline and heating oil, and anyway, we're supposedly on the verge of becoming the Saudi Arabia of oil and natural gas.

I'm thinking that population regulation is the way to go on this-- particularly the idea that people shouldn't have more than two children unless they have very, very good reasons for doing so (and religious 'go-forth-and-multiply' reasons don't qualify). I think this would seem reasonable to most people, and it would result in a gradually smaller human population. After all, if the human population of this planet were what it was in 1950-- about 2 billion-- global warming wouldn't be a problem at all.

voyager 1

We have left the Mother Ship.

http://www.space.com/22729-voyager-1-spacecraft-interstellar-space.html

ladee

NASA launches LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environmental Explorer) to examine the Moon's 'exosphere' (extremely thin atmosphere), 9/6/13.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/nasa-launches-ladee-virginia-20186452?tab=9482931&section=1206833

politics

I see planetarians as people who are involved in their own national politics, but from the point of view of looking out for the well-being of the planet as a whole, including all its inhabitants.

politics

I'll include interesting space images from time to time, but I'm more interested in the political aspect of being a 'planetarian.'  What are the most effective forms that such political participation could take?

snapshots from an apocalypse

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/opinion/sunday/gorgeous-glimpses-of-calamity.html?ref=global-home

perseid

http://www.space.com/22311-promising-perseid-meteor-shower-will-peak-soon.html

curiosity

Short update on the doings of the Mars rover Curiosity one year after its amazing landing on the surface of the Red Planet:

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/08/05/science/100000002374272/a-year-on-mars.html

a republican case for climate action

I think this is huge news:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/opinion/a-republican-case-for-climate-action.html?smid=tw-nytimesscience&seid=auto&_r=2&

Four former EPA heads-- all Republicans appointed by Republican presidents, going back to Nixon-- have come out with this statement affirming the reality of climate change:

"There is no longer any credible scientific debate about the basic facts: our world continues to warm, with the last decade the hottest in modern records, and the deep ocean warming faster than the earth’s atmosphere. "

It's hard to see how this statement could be ignored in future FEP (Flat Earth Party) primaries and national elections.  In the face of this, candidates will no longer be able to sluff this issue off as some kind of leftist hoax meant to 'take away our freedoms.'

2 child max

One of the recurring themes of this blog will be that the human population of this planet is too large.  It's been estimated that if all the people on this planet were to have an American or European middle-class standard of living, we'd need four or five planet Earth to satisfy their wants.  Thus, if that's what we want, the human population should be only a fraction of what it is today.

 a two-child maximum population policy-- '2 child max'-- would begin to chip away at this overage.  This should become a socially accepted norm, imposed if necessary by government fiat.

cassini images

This is an image of earth taken from the Cassini probe orbiting Saturn on July 19, 2013, from almost a billion miles away:

http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/23/earth-photographed-by-nasa-probe-in-saturn-orbit-a-billion-miles-away-3894779/

Here's a closeup showing the Earth and Moon:

http://mashable.com/2013/07/22/earth-saturn-nasa-cassini/