Saturday 25 July 2015

Saturday Photo: Resilience and that Other Goldilocks Planet

There's been a lot in the news this week about the discovery of a planet that might be hospitable to life as we know it.  The scientists have amused themselves, calling it a Goldilocks planet since it is not too close to its sun, nor too far away.

Others have also joked that at least now there's an exit door if things get too bad down here.  No matter that Keplar 452b is about 1500 light years away, some may find the idea of another place to mess up comforting.  Of course, given the fact that it appears to be about a 1.5 billion years older than us, the chances are that, had life evolved the way it has here, there's not much left.

But when things get really depressing I like to remember Dylan Thomas's line about "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower." Life on this planet is amazingly resilient, as this treeling demonstrates.  I like this photo particularly because of the bus passing in the background.  A shift from individualistic, carbon-fuel dependent modes of living will be the key to making sure that this planet remains habitable for a while longer.

1 comment:

lagatta à montréal said...

Of course it would be better still if they stepped up electrification of our buses. And personally, I don't think a tramline on avenue de Parc would be de trop, given the saturation of the orange métro line.

And this, on the importance of trees: http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150709/srep11610/full/srep11610.html Greenspace and health in urban centres. Making it sadder still to see the dying ash trees.