On this day, December 24 in, 1968 the Earthrise photo
showed our pale blue dot for what it is.
[The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 323ppm. At time of writing it was 419ishppm- but for what it is now,well, see here for the latest.]
The context was this –
The Americans were shooting for the moon, with good old American know-how, (as supplied by good-old Americans like Dr Werner von Braun) (the Soviets had given up boots on the moon as simply too expensive).
Why this matters.
Every so often someone says “we need a global consciousness”. Yeah, been there, done that, got the t-shirt, it wasn’t enough
What happened next?
The first big big wave of eco-concerrn, from the beginning of 1969 to the middle of 1972 or so…