When the Apollo astronauts relayed pictures from outer space and
the Moon from 1968 until 1972, people worldwide were stunned, espec -
ially by their photographs of our fragile home planet. These recorded
accomplishments challenged us to reevaluate and change our images of
ourselves and our environment, Earth. We were no longer earthbound!
These were the first photographs of our planet as a pale blue dot in the
universe. They gave us a new perspective of our world.
These televised images showed humans actually on the Moon, and this
is when we began to realize that our terrestrial habitat floats in the solar
galaxy. It became easier to comprehend Buckminster Fuller’s startling
reference to our “spaceship earth,” and allowed us to better appreciate
our tenuous grasp on life in this orbiting vehicle.
In this 21st century, the human race is finally gaining in global eco -
logical sensitivity. People are beginning to appreciate that it will take
multinational and multidisciplinary knowledge to cope with accelerating
environmental problems.
Environmental Perspective
Throughout humanity’s long journey from tribal organization to plane -
tary civilization, our influence over the environment has been relatively
limited, until the 20th century. Since then, environmental changes
have proceeded so rapidly as to cause Norbert Wiener, the creator of
cybernetic theory, to issue a warning some forty years ago:
“There is a real possibility that changes in our environment
have exceeded our capacity to adapt. The real dangers at
the present time make one wonder whether we have not
changed the environment beyond our ability to adjust to it.”
In the past hundred years, humanity has obtained more control over the
environment than exercised in all previous existence of our species. And
now we are extending our dominion offworld, out into the solar system.
The provocative space-age author and artist Earl Hubbard verbalized
these almost unthinkable ideas thusly:
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