Will we allow ignorance and complacency to shape the future planets? In the United States, Carl Sagan’s book Cosmos was reprinted. People rereading her are amazed at how much famous astronomer and science popularizer was concerned about climate change in 1980 year. It seems that he wrote this chapter yesterday. So this one excerpt. 
Photos from open sources Carl Sagan (portrait of Pat Lens). Sphinx – half human, half lion – was built over 5,500 years ago. Once his face was sharp outlined. Now it is flattened by desert sands and rains. IN New York stands an obelisk called “Cleopatra’s Needle,” which brought from Egypt. Just a hundred years in Central Park, and here it is the inscriptions are almost completely destroyed by smog and industrial pollution – chemical erosion resembling processes, occurring in the atmosphere of Venus. Erosion on Earth is gradually erasing information, but so slowly that we don’t notice it. Large formations – such as mountain ranges – dozens live million years, impact craters – perhaps hundreds of thousands, and monumental creations of human hands – only a few thousand. IN in addition to this slow and uniform erosion large and small disasters. The Sphinx has no nose. Someone shot at him: some say they were Mamelukes, others nod to the soldiers Napoleon. On Venus, on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system we see traces of catastrophic destruction, the causes of which served as slow, monotonous processes: on Earth, for example, sediment carried by streams, streams and rivers leads to the formation of huge alluvial pools; on Mars yet perhaps the beds of ancient rivers remained; on Io, the satellite of Jupiter, there is something like wide channels laid by streams liquid sulfur. On Earth and in the upper atmosphere of Venus and Jupiter powerful weather systems are raging. On Earth and Mars there are sand storms; on Jupiter, Venus and Earth – lightning. Volcanoes fill garbage atmosphere of the Earth and Jo. Internal geological processes slowly deform the surface of Venus, Mars, Ganymede and Europe, as well as the earth. Glaciers, especially glorious for their slowness, redraw the landscape on Earth and probably on Mars. By this processes do not need to be constant. Almost all of Europe was once covered in ice. Several million years ago at the site of the present Chicago towered a glacier three kilometers thick. On Mars and in elsewhere in the solar system we see formations that are not could appear today – landscapes created by hundreds of millions or even billions of years ago when the planet’s climate was completely otherwise. There is another factor that can change the landscape and climate. Earth – intelligent life. Both on Venus and on Earth exist greenhouse effect due to carbon dioxide and water vapor. The global average temperature on Earth would be below freezing water, if not for the greenhouse effect. Thanks to him, the ocean is liquid and life is possible. A bit of greenhouse conditions is good. But on earth carbon dioxide is in the earth’s crust – in limestone and other carbonates, not in the atmosphere. If the Earth moved completely slightly to the Sun and the temperature has grown a bit, part of CO2 would break out of surface rocks, increasing the greenhouse effect, which, in turn, would gradually heat the surface yet stronger. As a result, even more carbon dioxide would evaporate from carbonates and there would be a danger of rampant greenhouse effect and very high temperatures. This is what apparently happened in the early history of Venus due to its proximity to the luminary. Surface Venus conditions warns: a similar catastrophe can happen with a planet that is very similar to ours. Main sources the energies of today’s industrial civilization are the so-called fossil fuels. We burn wood and oil, coal and natural gas and by-products formed in the process enter to the air. As a result, the carbon dioxide content in the Earth’s atmosphere rapidly increasing. Because a runaway greenhouse is possible effect, we should be careful: increasing the global average temperatures of only one to two degrees can lead to disastrous consequences. Due to the burning of coal, oil and gas, we We also add sulfuric acid to the atmosphere. Like Venus, ours the stratosphere is now heavily saturated with fog from the smallest droplets of sulfuric acid. Our major cities are polluted harmful molecules. But we do not understand the long-term consequences our chosen course. But we change the climate in the opposite direction. For hundreds of thousands of years, human beings have burned and cut down forests, and also breed pets that graze in the meadows and destroy them. Slash-and-burn agriculture, industrial felling rainforests and overgrazing are still with us. But the woods darker than meadows, and pastures darker than deserts. Consequently, the amount of sunlight absorbed by the soil is reduced, and in as a result of changes in land use we lower the temperature the surface of our planet. Will this cooling increase area of polar ice, which due to its brightness will reflect more sunlight and lead to further cooling the planet? Our beautiful blue planet, Earth, is our the only house. Venus is too hot. It is very cold on Mars. Earth is the only paradise for people. After all, it is here that we were born. But favorable climatic conditions may disappear. We impact our poor planet in controversy way. Will we slide into Venusian hell or Martian ice age, no one knows. Exploring global climate and Comparison of the Earth with other worlds has just begun. These studies poorly and reluctantly funded. Our ignorance is still something pulls, then pushes the Earth, pollutes the atmosphere and increases the albedo the surface of the planet, ignoring the fact that long-term the consequences of such activities are unknown. Several million years ago, when people appeared, the Earth was already not young, she survived 4.6 billion years of disasters. And people were new and, perhaps a decisive factor. Our mind, our technology has given us forces affect the climate. How will we use this power? Are we ready to tolerate ignorance and complacency in matters which affect all of humanity? Will we appreciate short-term benefits above Earth’s well-being? Or we will think on a different time scale and take care of children and grandchildren, in order to understand and protect the complex life support systems of our planets? Earth is a tiny and fragile world. It must be protected. Prepared on the basis of io9.
Venus Water Life Climate Mars Solar System Jupiter
