There's Still Time, Brother...
It seems like every day this week there has been a news story about "global warming." The US Supreme Court heard a case yesterday regarding enforcement of vehicle emissions standards. In other news, Stephen Hawking said that in order to survive, humans will have to colonize distant planets. Another scientist, James Lovelock, predicted planetary wipeout due to what he calls "global heating."
I came across a recent article entitled "Global Warming Killing Some Species," which claims that animal and plant species have begun dying off or changing by global warming sooner than predicted.
So, this week I decided to take a temporary detour into this controversial subject of "global warming."
No, I didn't take this photo! Purportedly from NASA, it resembles an eye looking from space! Perhaps it's watching planet Earth to see what we do with (and to) our planet!
Regardless of whether climate change is part of a natural cycle or is human-caused, there is compelling evidence of earth and climate changes. They have the potential to affect all living things. Can these changes be reversed or will they continue to advance? I'm not sure anyone can say for sure. While there is still time, I would say we humans need to be caretakers of our environment and all life. Toward that effort, we backyard wild bird feeders take the lead and play an important part.
Thanks and I welcome your comments,
California Kathryn
Fallbrook, CA
Comments
Hi Kathryn,
Once again, good post.
As for the picture...
The photo is of "NGC 7293: Helix Nebula", or the so-called "Eye of God". Anyway, this is what it "looks like" when a star (not too unlike our own sun) dies. This guy is on his way to becoming a white dwarf... It's only 650 light years away from us, and is roughly 2.5 light years in size. (To put that in scale, our solar system is about 11 light hours across...) The photo was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and combined with like images from several earth-bound telescopes.
Alan
Posted by: CapeCodAlan | December 2, 2006 9:29 AM
That is one amazing photo! Thanks, Kathryn for posting it. :)
Posted by: Jen | December 4, 2006 6:33 PM