So You Think You’re Important?

(Above) The Earth taken from outside of our solar system by the Voyager spacecraft. Click image for larger view.


(Above) Approximate spot (in green) outside of our solar system where this amazing photograph was taken. Click image for larger view.


(Above) The black and white photo above is the first picture ever taken from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon. It was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit one hour before sunrise on the 63rd Martian day, or sol, of its mission. (March 8, 2004) Click image for larger view.

The image is a mosaic of images taken by the rover’s navigation camera showing a broad view of the sky, and an image taken by the rover’s panoramic camera of Earth. The contrast in the panoramic camera image was increased two times to make Earth easier to see. The inset shows a combination of four panoramic camera images zoomed in on Earth. The arrow points to Earth. Earth was too faint to be detected in images taken with the panoramic camera’s color filters.
Credit: © NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M


ON THE PALE BLUE DOT WE CALL EARTH, we divide ourselves into clans, territories and countries and fight and kill each other; we pollute the very orb that gives us life; so many of us get up everyday and go to jobs we hate and indulge ourselves in petty things. We compete and lose sleep for titles and corner offices in the corporate sphere and yet we live on this pale blue dot the size of a grain of sand on the beach. We think we are important. All that is really important is that we protect our tiny spaceship called Earth, that we protect our environment and that we learn to love one another. Because when its all said and done, each of us humans exist but a millisecond in the scheme of things—and then we die—disappear.

Go out today and do something good. Make love, show love, or do something good for the planet.