November 18, 2010
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World vs. Earth
Sound like the title of a grade B sci-fi flick? Not at all. It’s a battle between conflicting Points Of View, the winner of which will determine the future of humanity.
Where do you stand?
At the top of this screen are the letters: “www” – world wide web. That’s global alright, but it’s not Earth. It’s not Earth because “the world” is not a planet. “The world” does not exist in space. “The world” does not have unlimited resources, limitless boundaries, and endless possibilities. Earth does.
Most adults have been educated to the harsh realities of the world. The New Jersey Department of Education is filled with professionals dedicated to teaching their charges the Ins – and Outs – of living in the modern world.
The symbol that represents the Point Of View that our esteemed educators strive so heroically to inculcate stands in every classroom, in every library, in every school. It is the globe of the geo-politcal world, titled 23 1/2 degrees on its stand, with all the countries a different color, and every capital city’s name – capitalized.
But we live on Earth. Earth, – with no lines of division between the countries, and the colors of its planetary topography clearly visible through its changing cloud patterns- spins in space around a yellow star on the outer edges of a spiral galaxy.
The world doesn’t really even exist anymore. When the world stopped existing isn’t exactly clear. The Apollo lunar landing missions seemed to have struck the world a lethal blow. The photographs of the Whole Earth taken by our astronauts half-way to the moon were touted as heralds of a New Humanity.
But the geologists fought back. They defined astronomy as the study of space, up to, BUT NOT INCLUDING, the atmosphere of Earth. In other words, “Keep your hands off our world!” Because the geologists dug gold, and oil, and uranium, they succeeded in preserving the concept of the world as a geographical entity with soverign resources – worth fighting over.
That these same resources exist more abundantly, and potentially more readily retrievable, elsewhere in space, hasn’t quite made the headlines yet.
Just how ridiculous the struggle between “world views” has become is manifested no more clearly than in the “debate” over Global Warming.
Just the term: “global” warming should send up a red flag that the issue is being treated from a political, i.e. world – not Earth – point of view. This past year saw Japan literally SELL its carbon credits to Hungary. Having emitted more than its alloted amount of polllution, Japan offered something in the neighborhood of $55 million to Hungary if Hungary, which was well below its pollution quota, would accept the transfer of Japan’s contravening pollution credits. Voila! Japan was no longer in violation of its Kyoto treaty commitments.
This type of manipulation isn’t going to get us where “we” need to go – “we” being us humans. It would be comical if it weren’t so tragically critical for the planet Earth.
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