Nicholas letter: Lesson of the eclipse

With millions of fellow countrymen, I experienced a celestial phenomenon known as an eclipse of the sun.

I felt the heat from the sun fade very quickly, it got cold very fast; without the light and warmth of the sun, life on earth will pass very quickly. Earth needs cold to ensure the sustainability of life on earth. Take away the yearly cold periods replacing a “global” warming effect and eventually life on earth will again diminish very quickly. The eclipse for me was a dramatic example of how our planet’s ecological systems work. It took millions of years for this planet to develop “systems” that work. To think that we can let this system fail and later “we” can fix it is an infantile delusion. The eclipse was true reality, global warming is true reality. There are “true” indications that this “system” is breaking down. Our leaders maintain infantile delusions that if it breaks down sometime in the future we can fix it. Carl Sagan said it best: “This blue marble is the only home we’ve got,” there is no one, or thing out there to help save us. Only we can do that.

This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 10:05 PM with the headline "Nicholas letter: Lesson of the eclipse."