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50 years ago, 'Earthrise' inspired the environmental movement.
The 1968 Apollo 8 mission was crucial in the race to get a man on the moon. It was the first manned launch of the colossal Saturn V rocket, which had only flown twice before in unmanned test missions. It was also the first manned spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity, reach another celestial body, and orbit it. It took nearly three days for the crew to reach the moon, and after a tense four minute engine burn -- which could have flung them into space or crashed them onto the Moon's surface --they successfully entered orbit.
The astronauts were equipped with a highly modified Hasselblad 500 EL with the reflex viewfinder replaced by a mechanical sighting ring. They were fully trained in its use and in photography principles and had access to both 70mm color and black and white film. Commander Frank Borman happened to be turning the command module when it came around on its fourth orbit on December 24th, and the Earth appeared as a blue jewel against the Moon's drab monochrome surface.
Borman reportedly took a black and white photo of the Earth in a slightly lower position next to the moon, but Anders thought the shot would be worthy of color. The conversation among the crew at that moment was famously recorded for posterity (above), and reveals what happened next.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 25 2018, @02:31PM (3 children)
Environment related... A book called The Population Bomb was published but no where has any news outlet or blog covered this particular anniversary even though now we know it was right in gist if wrong in facts.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday December 25 2018, @05:04PM (2 children)
"We" don't know that because it isn't true. For example, where's the acknowledgement that looking at present day resource consumption versus present day economic reserves of resources is a terrible way to study resource depletion? Where's the acknowledgement of technology and knowledge in preventing the predictions of the "Population Bomb" book? Where's the acknowledgement that the relatively higher resource consumption, wealth, and freedom of the developed world has created, through no fault of the Malthusians, a population with an inherent negative population growth rate?
It's time to believe in reality, not cute stories.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday December 25 2018, @05:39PM (1 child)
I don’t regard the iPhone or Facebook to have contributing in any significant way
Poor cultivation practice continue to cause desertification. Slash and burnish agriculture in the Amazon result in extinction of species on a near-daily basis and greatly accelerate climate change
We can solve desertification and ease climate change by planting lots of trees but so far that’s commonly only done just south of the Sahara in east Africa
The war in Yemen has resulted in a famine that threatens the lives of twelve million completely innocent people, a great many of them children. Saudi Arabia has blockaded and is bombing the seaports so foreign relief is impossibly nor can refugees flee by ship or by air, as Saudi fighters threaten Yemen’s airport
In the industrialized world the gap between rich and poor with the result that some Japanese guy just booked a tour around the moon while a UNLV Adjunct Professor was ashamedto serve on of her own students in a Las Vegas restaurant
Exploding corporate, consumer and student debt led Goldman Sachs to issue a report that grimly predicted a ten years deflationary spiral into depression
To the extent you possibly can pay off or at least pay down your secured loans, most of all your auto loan if you’re to have any hope of finding work when you current employer becomes insolvent.
While the US Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment guarantees Treasury Bonds I remain skeptical and so am stockpiling beans and rice
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday December 25 2018, @05:58PM
Don't overdo that. Six months plus an earthquake prep kit is probably more than good enough even if the US government absolutely craters (plus it covers the disasters you're mostly likely to see in your neck of the woods). Any disaster big enough that years of food supply seems like a good idea is going to be a situation where you probably can't protect a large food supply from looting.