Daily Maverick introduces Notes from a Small Planet, a new series exploring ecological consciousness through influential thinkers. The inaugural piece draws on astrophysicist Carl Sagan's reflections from NASA's Voyager 1 mission. It highlights humanity's responsibility to cherish Earth amid environmental challenges.
Maverick Earth, a platform addressing global warming, declining biodiversity, and human impacts on the biosphere, has reported on conservation, energy use, pollution, and related issues for five years. Now, it launches Notes from a Small Planet, an occasional series delving into the ideas of thinkers, activists, scientists, and cultural figures shaping ecological awareness. Unlike daily news, these pieces emphasize intellectual, ethical, and cultural dimensions of ecology and sustainability.
The series begins with the perspective of Carl Sagan, who contributed to NASA's Voyager program. In 1990, Voyager 1, positioned 6.4 billion kilometres from Earth, captured an image of the planet as a faint speck of light in a sunbeam. Sagan described this 'pale blue dot' in poignant terms:
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
This reflection underscores the series' aim to foster deeper appreciation for Earth as our sole home, urging kinder treatment among people and preservation of the planet.