Science

The Long View
The Long View Mankind, even as cave dwellers, was motivationally incapable of keeping the caves clean. Now, as world citizens, we as a species are probably incapable of cleaning up our oceans and landmass of earth's litter and cast offs. Even space is getting filled with earth's flotsam and jetsam. Space debris is a real and growing problem. We can't even get immediate family to agree on picking up laundry and taking out trash. So why should we assume that it is possible to get other populations representing myriad cultures, different histories, different economies, different needs, and different values to agree and act on the steps necessary to save our planet. Fear of death won't do it! Especially if those deaths are out of sight, either in terms of time or space, and not an immediate threat to self and family. Education won't do it either. In fact education itself, because of politically charged anti-intellectualism and competition from cultism, needs attention even while we wrestle with trying to save the earth from our trash. Just in the last few weeks Japan announced that a huge amount of water from a nuclear site was going to be dumped in the ocean. Their scientists explained how that was okay. Meanwhile, approximately 30% of the world's oil is produced from off-shore wells. That's no problem unless you remember the BP oil rig fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico from a few years ago.
By Cleve Taylor 5 years ago in Earth
Earth
Earth is a squashed sphere Earth is not a perfect sphere. As Earth spins, gravity points toward the center of our planet (assuming for explanation's sake that Earth is a perfect sphere), and a centrifugal force pushes outward. But since this gravity-opposing force acts perpendicular to the axis of Earth, and Earth's axis is tilted, centrifugal force at the equator is not exactly opposed to gravity. This imbalance adds up at the equator, where gravity pushes extra masses of water and earth into a bulge, or "spare tire" around our planet.
By Firoz Alam5 years ago in Earth
4 Interesting Facts About Planet Earth
Earth day observed on April 22 every year marks the anniversary of the modern environmental movement in 1970. The first Earth Day was an American movement started by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson. Later in 1990, Denis Hayes took it international and organized events in 141 nations. Today, all over the world, we celebrate Earth Day. Have you ever wondered about how the planet Earth holds us stable in perfect harmony, withstanding the mess we do it? Let’s think about some of the interesting things about our patient Mother Earth.
By Anitha Sankaran5 years ago in Earth
History of Earth Day
April 22 is called Earth Day because it both commemorates and celebrates the observance of the anniversary of our discovery of planet Earth. At this time, by all accounts, there is general agreement that Earth is far superior to the planet from which we came, as we shall recount below. Meanwhile, several companies on Earth celebrate it as a holiday, as mine does, or draw significant attention to it with feats of Interweb and mobile legerdemain.
By Bill Petro5 years ago in Earth