The School of Athens

The School of Athens
The School of Athens by Raphael (click on picture to view short documentary from Columbia University)

Thursday, 25 September 2014

Together we shall save our planet

Colleagues and scholars from coast to coast, across Bass Strait and all the ships at sea.

On September 25, 1961 (53 years ago today) President John F. Kennedy addressed the United Nations General Assembly.


He ended his address with these words:

Ladies and gentlemen of this Assembly, the decision is ours. Never have the nations of the world had so much to lose, or so much to gain. Together we shall save our planet, or together we shall perish in its flames. Save it we can--and save it we must--and then shall we earn the eternal thanks of mankind and, as peacemakers, the eternal blessing of God.

You can view him saying those words on YouTube here

President Kennedy was referring to avoiding nuclear annihilation. A very real threat at that time, as the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was to prove.

His words are just as applicable today to addressing the ravages of another human created crisis - climate change.

Will our actions in addressing this crisis earn us the eternal thanks of mankind? Or, as seems most likely given our current behaviour, will they earn us eternal condemnation?

In 53 years from today will this be typical of the response from Gen Then? 


"We finally, really did it. You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah damn you! God damn you all to Hell!"

You can view that haunting final scene from the 1968 film Planet of the Apes on YouTube here

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive

Our home

Our home
Earthrise over the moon (click on picture to view film)

The pale blue dot

The pale blue dot
Earth viewed from Saturn (click on picture to view film clip)

Our neighbourhood

Our neighbourhood
The Solar System (click on picture to view film)

Our Home Galaxy

Our Home Galaxy
The Milky Way (click on picture to view film)

A sister galaxy

A sister galaxy
Andromeda (click on picture to view film)

Another sister galaxy

Another sister galaxy
Triangulum (click on picture to view short film clip)

The Local Group of Galaxies

The Local Group of Galaxies
Our Galactic Neighbourhood (click on picture to view film clip).

Our farthest view of the Universe

Our farthest view of the Universe
Hubble's farthest view (click on picture to view film clip)

The virgo super cluster of galaxies

The virgo super cluster of galaxies
Galaxies within 100 million light years (click on picture to view film clip)

Galaxies within 1 billion light years

Galaxies within 1 billion light years

Universe

Universe