A small perspective

Here is a small perspective on you, me, us, and our planet, earth that we live on. We live on possibly the only planet that seems to have intelligent (pretentious) life forms. And instead of trying to protect it, we are looking to find other life forms. Why? Well possibly to export our destructive powers?

Earth (12600 km), with its satellite Moon (3500 km)

Venus is about the same size as Earth

Suddenly dwarfed in comparison with Neptune and Uranus

Jupiter's diameter is 143,000 km

All pale in comparison with our Sun - 1,392,000 kilometers !

Sun is not the largest star in our galaxy, Sirius something bigger at ~2,500,000km

Pollux is about 8.3 times of Sun

Arcturus is about 31 times the size of Sun.

Aldebaran is 51 times. Sun is a mere dot in this pic.

VV Cephei is about 2400 light years away from Earth

Canis Majoris is ~2000 times our Sun

At this point we, our earth, cannot even be represented. All of this within our Milky Way or nearby galaxy. The Milky Way, Akash Ganga galaxy itself is about 1 million light-years in diameter. The solar system is not at the center of the galaxy, as is normally represented.

So, if it took God (as supposed some where), 6 days to create our planet, and one day to rest, i strangely feel (s)he is still working somewhere.

At end of this, i wonder if this is the right time to bring up my problem with including and positioning  large images in my blog.

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I tried to locate the original pictures, in an effort to find out the authenticity too. Unfortunately no luck there, and apparently several people also tried the same without luck. So bless the person or persons who created this. I assembled these from two or more sites. It took me over a week or so do this, i have almost lost the sites where i picked up which pictures. But if you do a simple search for 'earth size perspective' you will hit a dozen, refine your searches and see more refined(?) versions.

Drying your Laundry

Why should there so much fuss about where one dries their laundry? While the americans and the west are waking up to this, we in India are slowly adding electric driers to our home appliance list.

350 or bust !!

Didnt know a lot about 350. I started hearing about it recently, and came to know what it was all about. You can too....

Now that you know, what will you do to help?

Chandrayaan-I finds traces of water on moon

So we are able to trace water on the moon. But down here on our land and planet, we are still searching.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

One of pet peeves, stop dumping. Re-use, recycle, and refuse plastic and other products that cause waste.

If you havent already heard about one of the largest garbage dumps in the world, take a look at the animation below (thanks to GreenPeace).

Try the option 'The Journey of Trash', an animated presentation of how trash from the coast collects to form this great garbage patch, in the Pacific Ocean.

Earth Clock

Is there a problem with these numbers ?

What can I do ?

I have been worrying lately, a little too much i must say about the world, earth, and life for my kids, about a decade or two from now. I do, get a little carried away with these thoughts. and as a result, go to extremes, in my reaction.

While, i might be paranoid, i think there is a real reason to be worried. But that should only goad us to think and act better. There are several things we can do now, to avoid the course the globe is taking today. The answer is clearly in our hands.

Well what can we do? Well !!

Can I change a light bulb ? Can I close a running tap? Can I get on a bus or train ? Can I turn off the TV if 'am on the computer ? Can I turn off the computer if 'am watching TV? Can i eat all that is served on my plate (not waste anything)? Can I turn of the A/C or Heater and enjoy the climate as it is, atleast once in a while ?

If we can do any of these or a hundred other small things, we can help. we can also help by talking about this and letting our friends and family understand these many options. I do some of these. I try to add one more criteria everytime, i stop and think about this.

Just hoping it works.

To eat or not to eat

Recently Ms. Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State of the US, said that people from India and China are responsible for the food crisis.

Well, i, for one, had fully expected this. There are several truths here:
- there is a crisis - food price is up and there is shortage all around
- people in the new developed countries are consuming more, because they can afford it now
- people from the existing western world are feeling the pinch, slowly but steadily
- altho these people are not ready to share or consume any less

For all this, someone is to blame, question tho is who ?

The food consumption is only expected to increase, with the increasing population and one that can afford to buy and eat better and more food. The already developed, who have been leading a good life, is not about to give up their over luxurious life and reduce their consumption any bit. In all these years, when the oil prices have been going up, they havent moved a bit to reduce their oil consumption, so how can one expect something more personal like food habits.

The world is ever shrinking. All of us are being held up to the same standards now. Everyone will have to give up something, or else, we all can get ready for a big food fight. I somehow feel, knowing us humans, the latter is a distinct possibility.

What's your footprint ?

The ecofoot.org website has a cool calculator to determine what your footprint or consumption level is.

Here is my revised one. I did one earlier that resulted footprint calculation of 12+
CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD 0.4
MOBILITY 1.6
SHELTER 0.8
GOODS/SERVICES 1.1

TOTAL FOOTPRINT 3.9

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 0.8 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2.2 PLANETS.

Whats your footprint ?