Celebrate Earth and space

Aegliss, Shelbyville TN — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:51:46 GMT

Alan Boyle puts his pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else. Except when he does it, he makes gold records... or more accurately, Cosmic Logs.

I've made a few Cosmic Logs in my day too, Alan.

Celebrate Earth and space

Thomas Ashby, Calgary — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:03:37 GMT

The HST interacting galaxy shots are always astonishing.

Celebrate Earth and space

Eric, Salinas, CA — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:12:14 GMT

Happy Earth Day Alan! Great article on the Earth Day festivities. It's time to really take serious taking care of our one and only nest, lest we foul it up so bad that there will be no future generations to come.

Happy Hubble's 19th Birthday too Alan! A really nice tribute to our eye in the sky that has revealed so much cosmic truth. After some bleak days last fall when Hubble malfunctioned it has come back to life and given us so many classic new views of the cosmos. Wasn't that some auspicious timing of that communication malfunction just before the Hubble repair mission was scheduled to launch? Now the new repair mission has an equipment replacement fix for that snafu and ensures that the repairs will keep on giving us new pictures of cosmic beauty for many years to come. Only a few more weeks before we get to watch the repairs unfold on live NASA tv.

Celebrate Earth and space

Sal Blomo, NY — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:06:50 GMT

Earth day is a great time to reflect on all those deadly soda cans and brutal plastic bags that are destroying our world. Never in our history has seltzer gas been more deadly then ever before. Now is the time to raise taxes and change our habits because a 0.5 degree change in the next 30 years will certainly lead to droughts, more disease, famine and deadly tidal waves that will swallow up all of our coastal cities if enough money isn't spent.

Nevermind all the earth quakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays and recurring ice ages that have plagued our planet in the past.

Earth has an even bigger problem, used Miller Lite bottles and incandescent light bulbs! So get out your check books because our 4 billion year old friend is in deep trouble and Nancy Pelosi (ahhem, I mean Earth) needs us more than ever before!

Celebrate Earth and space

CLP, Green Bay, WI — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:07:32 GMT

Wow Sal, way to be a downer. You do have a point though! Earth day is a time for reflection, and hopefully, if we spend enough money, cut carbon emissions, and inform people, we may be able to reverse some of the damage we have done, and maybe stop harming the Earth and all of her glorious creatures.

Celebrate Earth and space

Mitch Colorado Springs Colorado — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:20:05 GMT

Thanks Sal, you forgot nuclear war and germ warfare.

Celebrate Earth and space

Evilbino, Plattsburgh NY — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:44:03 GMT

"So get out your check books because our 4 billion year old friend is in deep trouble and Nancy Pelosi (ahhem, I mean Earth) needs us more than ever before!"

Hey Sal,
the Earth does not care about global warming. WE care about global warming. In a few hundred thousand years (a cosmic half an eye-blink)or a few million years, the Earth will be OK. We just not be. So relax, I doubt the Earth really wants us around anyway. Break your checkbooks out, not for the environment, but for NASA. We ruined this planet anyway and when it shakes us off like a bad cold you better hope that we've got ourselves a self sufficient colony in space, because honestly I'm pretty sure Global Warming is OUR problem not the Earths.

Celebrate Earth and space

N.S., Islamabad — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:01:50 GMT

All the wonders and beauties of our planet and the Universe around us seem to be diminished by the turmoils all around us....I just wish that humanity was more peace-loving...and did less damage to each each other and the world around us...but well, it seems like we'll have to suffer what we have to suffer...

Celebrate Earth and space

Laura Ralston — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:15:23 GMT

Every Earth Day I wrote an article for my college newspaper. The theme was always THANK YOU. My thanks still go out every year to Gaylord Nelson, the senator who started recycling over 35 years ago. In his effort to make a better world for his children he has made a huge impact AND a better world for all of us. Statistics show that since recycling started in the 70's we have reduced the amount of garbage in the landfills by over 20% 20%!!!!! That's incredible. Once again I would like to ask people on this Earth Day to raise a toast of whatever you drink to Gaylord Nelson. I would call him a true hero. It is amazing what one human can do to inspire us all.

Celebrate Earth and space

Mary, Boston — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:38:56 GMT

Happy Earth Day!

All of us should do our part to save our planet.

Here is an artistic animated ecard for Earth Day, "Blue Planet". It is an underwater production completely with many reef fishes, a turtle, a ray and dolphins.

It is free to send and to spread the important message of saving our planet.

http://www.ojolie.com/index.php?step=preview&ec_id=54

Celebrate Earth and space

Marie Smith, Fredericksburg,VA — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:44:57 GMT

This green stuff about making money! Period!

Celebrate Earth and space

carlos, minneapolis, MN — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:53:43 GMT

Another sample of the power of our loving Father. God is awesome and His power can be seen out in space and here on this planet. God, the Creatoe of all things deserve our adoration and praise. Let's bow down before Him. Amen.

Celebrate Earth and space

Bob Frazier — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:35:36 GMT

Great time to give glory to the One who created the Heavens and the Earth.

Celebrate Earth and space

Daniel — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:40:40 GMT

Excess human population is the root cause of most environmental and political problems. The current global human population is about 10x the planet's long term carring capacity according to some experts.

Celebrate Earth and space

Wheeler, MO — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:00:43 GMT

I too believe that Earth needs to be cleaned up. But I think that, even more than money, it needs to be done by building up higher moral base. The citizens of Earth need to go back to the basics of family values and teaching our children to have respect for adults and themselves. We need to rid the Earth of such filth of pornography, drug and alcohol abuse. If we all have the courage to start cleaning the earth morally in our own homes and then reaching out and serving our communities our Earth would be a much cleaner place! Happy Earth Day! =)

Celebrate Earth and space

Redwind, Los Angeles, Ca. — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:01:13 GMT

You should have listened to us. Five hundred years ago we told you what would happen. You think you know. You think you think. The whole time all your are doing is filling your pockets. Now it is simply, how do you fill your pockets on global warming. The foundation of all your knowledge is false. It dosen't matter what you do or don't do it will all go wrong for you. Just how high did you think you could go? Your reality is not founded in reality.

Celebrate Earth and space

John Charleston SC — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:28:04 GMT

The world population stands at 6+ billion humans and the projected world population by 2050 is 9+ billion humans (~40 years away). One can only imagine the damage to planet earth by adding 3+ billion more people yet no one is concerned about over population. I find Earth Day a joke as well as global warming. If you are concerned about either attack the root cause of the problem---OVER POPULATION. However, that is not politacally correct nor can money be made off of it.

Celebrate Earth and space

Darrell Messbarger — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:04:26 GMT

My regret about Earth Day is that it is, almost entirely, preaching to the choir. Earth's residents fall into two groups - environmentally conscious and brain dead. Earth Day should not be an attempt at making ecologically concerned disciples more aware, but should be to alter the attitudes of the billions who think the planet can take whatever we dish out.

I am hoping that their conversion will not be long coming. If it is, I fear we are doomed.

Celebrate Earth and space

John Walker — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:18:41 GMT

'GOD'S ABODE."
Above all skies or the eye,
God's abode man cannot probe.
Man tries by rockets, satellite and plane,
To receach beyond his earthly domain.
He may explore worlds unknown,
Seeking knowledge, he forever roams.
But God has ordained a perfect plan,
To meet the needs of mortal man.
Through His own Son He gave to die,
That man may forever live beyond the sky.

Celebrate Earth and space

rafael, anaheim, cal. — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:29:41 GMT

what are the 2 beautiful stars that appear in the night sky next to the moon, if planets which are they?? thanks.

[ALAN ADDS: You were probably looking at Venus (brighter) and Mars (lower in the sky, with a butterscotch cast). Jupiter is also visible higher in the sky. Here are some diagrams: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance ... Of course the sky was clouded over at my vantage point near Seattle!]

Celebrate Earth and space

Melaina Gregal, Eureka CA — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:25:07 GMT

Earth Day!

Now all I need to do is find a cake big enough to hold 4.5 billion candles and we'll be all set!

Celebrate Earth and space

Mark, CA — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:14:48 GMT

If we can stop illegal immigration, maybe we can stablize poplulation in the U.S. We might have to lower legal immigration as well but lets stop illegal immigration first. Don't reform immigration but punish employers who hire illegals. Build the fence. Elect politicians who support these views. We don't have to have deportation until we try these two options first.

Celebrate Earth and space

teri parsons — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:27:03 GMT

The bible of the environmental movement was the father of ecology's, "A Sand County Almanac", in which he brilliantly articulated the ecology of Earth and seeded the first green, the big green, the only green that has ever mattered and will ever matter: The salvation and protection of Earth's ecosystems and her biological diversity, i.e., the strands in the web of all life. Unless mankind is, "suicidal", the only issue that is integrated and interconnected with mankind's very existence is that first green, which denotes an ecological understanding that man exists at all is entertwined and interconnected to ecosystems and their bodiversity, the very breath of life, and the alpha and the omega.

Mankind cannot eat an atm machine, green building or solar panel nor can he drink a windmill factory, a green toilet scrubber or gas station, and he certainly cannot breathe a dollar bill or green anything unless he saves and protects his very own lifelines to existence. No issue is as vital to all issues as that big green. We are discussing the releasing of oxygen, the regulation of the climate, the gaseous composition of the atmosphere, the nitrogen and carbon cycles and the entirety of Earth's biogeochemistry, to name just a handful of "ecosystem services", all the reasons mankind is alive in the first place.

From forty years ago in America, "Ecology Now"! "In wildness is the salvation of the Earth and the preservation of all life, long known among mountains and wolves but seldom perceived by man."

Happy Earth Day!

Celebrate Earth and space

Des Emery, St. Thomas, ON, Canada — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:02:33 GMT

One of the common threads in religious hope is the dictum, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Golden Rule, which makes life worth living.

And for those who can't subscribe to any kind of religious order there is The Green Rule, "Do unto the Earth as you would have the Earth do unto you."

People can be notoriously ungrateful for the most generous charity received, but the Earth will always thank you for even the least effort you make to help her out.

Celebrate Earth and space

a p garcia — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:44:51 GMT

I'll celebrate earth day by going to the Hunting land in my Hummer and firing up the chain saw and clearing the place up by cutting down several trees and putting a hunting shack in its place.

Celebrate Earth and space

Samuel, Dubai, UAE — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:07:21 GMT

Earth is the common heritage for entire humanity. It is our duty to save mother Earth from pollution and environmental degradation.

Celebrate Earth and space

Tim Rommes, Washington, UT — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:54:08 GMT

Darrell Messbarger (4/22, 1004) said, "... but should be to alter the attitudes of the billions who think the planet can take whatever we dish out."

The planet *can* take whatever we dish out. It may not continue to be hospitable toward us, but we won't destroy it, or life on it.