Happy Earthday

I was wondering what the Artemis II astronauts thought when they looked back at beautiful planet Earth…where there was an active madman threatening to destroy a complete civilization. (The lunatic is in the hall, ha ha)

The name Earth comes from the comes from the Old English word eorþe and the German word erde; "earth" referred simply to the ground beneath our feet. Over many centuries, as our understanding of astronomy evolved, the word was eventually applied to the entire globe.

The other planets follow the naming convention established by the Romans – the red planet was named Mars after the god of war, and the largest planet was named Jupiter after the king of the gods.

So, while the Romans gave us names like Mars and Jupiter, and the Germanic tribes gave us the word Earth, the Greeks gave us the spiritual and linguistic framework that we still use to study the planet today. Gaia (or Gaea) is the personification of Earth in Greek mythology. In the Greek creation story, Gaia was one of the first beings to emerge from Chaos. She was considered the Mother of All, giving birth to the Sky, the Mountains, and the Sea.

Even if it may sometimes seem we are devolving back into chaos, Gaia may not really care.

The Gaia Hypothesis, proposed by James Lovelock in the 1970s, suggests that the Earth and its biological systems behave as a single, self-regulating organism to maintain the conditions for life. Gaia will be fine, however long us humans keep on killing each other.

And what must superior life forms think, those Starmen waiting in the sky – Ah those humans, such potential, when will they grow up, evolve beyond sticks and stones?

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon

And if there is no room upon the hill

And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too

I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

On the other hand, perhaps we are just in a temporary darkness:

…everything under the sun is in tune

but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

Either way, Happy Earthday, Gaia, our home.